Davos 2010: The art of the veiled threat
No one has perfected the veiled threat as well as Larry Summers, president Obama’s chief economic adviser. It was on fine display at the World Economic Forum on Saturday.
He was [...]
Risky states
Ok, so we’ve all known for some time US states have been suffering through the downturn. But take a look at this chart just released by JPMorgan economic research.
Surprisingly, it [...]
Argentine central bank chief saga ends
It’s over.
After weeks of acrimonious fighting, Martín Redrado, the central bank president who President Cristina Fernández has been attempting to fire , accepted defeat.
Some background for those who haven’t been [...]
Just how good are the US GDP numbers?
The economy sprung into action last quarter, growing at a whopping annualised 5.7 per cent, its fastest pace in six years. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were only expecting a 4.5 [...]
GSEs continue to add risks to financial system
It’s been a bad day for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. First, Hank Paulson, former Treasury secretary, says that Russia tried to spur China to sell the GSE’s securities to [...]
Football is not a business, as Crystal Palace shows
The myth has been around for long enough now. “Football is business,” proclaimed The Independent when the Glazers took over at Man Utd. “The Football Business” runs the title of a book by David Conn of The Guardian. There are ev…
The iPod in the Rye
How apt that JD Salinger should have gone to the Great Writers’ Retreat in the Sky on the exact same day that Apple unveiled its latest piece of high-tech handheld gadgetry, the iPad.
Although The Catcher in the Rye defined adolescence for gene…
Early reactions to Blair at Chilcot
For days, columnists have been positing their own questions for Blair to answer about the invasion of Iraq. Today, for six hours, the five members of the Chilcot Inquiry have been asking the ones Blair actually has to answer.
For the latest events, see…
Davos 2010: The G20 and the IMF
In a recent speech, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England railed against the inconsistencies of national recovery strategies, saying that, “a present there is no political mechanism for [...]
Davos 2010: The Bard, the buck and the beast
I had an ulterior motive last night when I went to a dinner on Shakespeare and the crisis. I thought the session, led by Carol and Ken Adelman, founders of [...]