It will soon be a year since Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Besides the toll it has taken on Ukrainian lives and livelihoods, there is a huge cost being imposed on countries around the world. In terms of food and energy shortages, and their high prices. Thankfully Ukraine is able to export foodgrains under an agreement… Continue reading When E = R x NT²
In a high-inflation environment, it’s perhaps time to look at how consumers are being affected and how they are managing to cope. In Europe, of course, the impact of the war in Ukraine is being most directly felt, I would imagine. What with temperatures dropping, and prices and interest rates rising. Elsewhere too, it is… Continue reading Wintertime, and the Living Ain’t Easy
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
Finished reading the second of the three books my aged father gifted me for my birthday this August, and as someone who has read Kazuo Ishiguro, I have to say it is completely out of character with anything he has written before. I could tell from the book’s title itself, When We Were Orphans that… Continue reading Neither Orphans, Nor Detectives
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?
Reading about China’s 20th Communist Party Congress that took place last month in Beijing, it’s good to think about what its message is to the Communist Party, to the people of China and to the world. As the world’s second-largest economy and one of the most populous, if not the most populous, countries in the… Continue reading Cold War with China Not What the World Needs
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
After reading news of India’s first quarter GDP for FY 23, which showed little sign of a base effect despite the fact that in FY 22, we had grown 20.1% in the same quarter, we are likely to think that base effects don’t matter anymore. It would be unwise to think so, however, because this… Continue reading Pay Attention to the Cyclical Economy
In my second Owleye column on my blog, I had called the geopolitical tensions emanating out of Russia and China at the time a red herring. I had written that the world, especially the media, were busy talking up the threat of war by Russia and China over Ukraine and Taiwan respectively. I was wrong.… Continue reading Geopolitical Tensions Derailing Economic Recovery
Peripatetic Perch 