Since the world’s major economies reopened after Covid-related lockdowns, they have been heating up, what with pent-up demand, consumers on a spending spree, travelling, dining out and catching up on a host of social activities that were not possible during lockdowns. All that heated spending and pent-up demand, with supply chains not catching up, led… Continue reading Inflation: Up, up and away!
Four decades after globalization of business began, I think we can all agree that it is widespread and well-entrenched. And while there is a lot of talk of deglobalisation, about which I wrote recently on my blog, I not only think that globalisation is here to stay, I think it has become much more complex… Continue reading Which Shoring Makes Best Sense for Globalised Business
They say a week is a long time in politics, but what a tumultuous month or so it has been for Britain and the world. It was political upheaval and changes prompted by some very irresponsible economics. If one includes the leadership changes that went before this most recent one, Britain begins to resemble Italy.… Continue reading Britain’s Time of Reckoning
More importantly, can it afford to? At the start of the 2007/08 Financial Crisis, many international commentators talked of the possibility of deglobalization, perhaps out of fears that the global financial system had grown too large, too fast, and that tougher regulation might force them to shrink their operations. Whether the regulatory system forced them… Continue reading Is the World Deglobalising?
Even in ordinary times, it is too much to expect consistency in economic policies from many governments. And these are anything but ordinary times. Yet, it is in turbulent times that we need consistent and relevant economic policies. Emerging from two years of a devastating pandemic, the global economy has had to deal with wild… Continue reading Winds of Change Affecting Economies
It’s a year since the worst of the Covid-19 outbreaks, and with most people fully vaccinated in many countries, economies are getting back to work. The biggest concern, though, around the world is soaring inflation which is well-entrenched now and broadbased, so interest rate hikes to tame it are in full swing. The tightening of… Continue reading Recession, Recession, Why Such Confusion
If anyone could go one better in fiction after the Harry Potter books, it ought to have been JK Rowling herself. Sadly, The Casual Vacancy has to go down as her worst book, and I haven’t checked if she’s written any since. My father bought The Casual Vacancy – that too, a hardback – a… Continue reading Sleazy Potboiler After Potter
As we come to the end of the second pandemic year, we are being forced to confront the same old ugly reality: rising inequality. Come to think of it, we have had to live with this for the past couple of decades and more. And despite two massive crises of a global nature – the… Continue reading Coming Soon: The Revolt of the 90%
The last time I wrote about Europe’s economy, it was in the context of global economic recovery, jobs and employment and how many people who had been furloughed were back to full-time work. Now that we know that the European economy has grown healthily in the second quarter of 2021, we must remember that it… Continue reading Europe’s Economic Recovery Could Be Hit by Own Goal
Boris Johnson has “got Brexit done” and it was hard to miss the photograph of him cheerfully grinning with a thumbs-up sign in newspapers even in India. Phew! What a relief, is what most Britons must be thinking. Surely, they are not feeling terribly ecstatic over Brexit. Especially not when the country is also grappling… Continue reading What next for Britain and Europe after Brexit?
Peripatetic Perch 