The idea that governments can ‘manage’ economies by taking over from consumers during downturns – and borrowing or creating money to do it - is a new idea relative to human history. One day, it may be seen as an idea that w ...

The price:earnings ratio can be very useful in identifying a share that is over or undervalued, either against its peers or by its historical standards. However, I also use a much less common ratio which is basically th ...

I was shocked to discover this week that latest figures show unemployment in Spain is nearly 25% and youth unemployment is over 50%. Such numbers suggest a country that is in deep economic trouble and probably there is n ...

Not long before the Asian currency crisis of the late 1990s, US Economics Professor Robert Shiller produced a report that showed the ‘Asian miracle’ of a multi-decade economic boom was not so remarkable. The bottom lin ...

Economists are very good at not making their forecasts too specific. This make sense given the unpredictably of life and the many instances where ‘expert’ predictions have proven to be hopelessly wrong. However, economi ...

The problems with papering over cracks and inserting thumbs into dykes is that they are temporary measures. Everything seems fine for a while but the underlying problem has not gone away and inevitably comes back worse th ...

In the past I have written about the rise and fall of empires and how the west is showing many signs of having peaked. However, if history is any guide, the fall of empires often is very long and slow and the west - pa ...

The following are 10 reasons why the reign of the dollar as the world reserve currency is about to come to an end.... #1 China And Japan Are Dumping the U.S. Dollar In Bilateral Trade A few months ago, the second l ...

Mark Faber of the Hong Kong-based Gloom, Boom and Doom report has a pretty good track record of picking trends and his latest comments are well worth taking to heart. In a recent interview he notes there is a good chan ...

I have mentioned before that one non-financial book that is a must-read is Collapse, by anthropologist Jared Diamond. This is a fascinating study of how and why some very successful civilizations have failed over the year ...