22 February 2019 Last year's Turkish financial market crisis emanated from the confluence of several domestic and international factors. To be sure, Turkey is no stranger to boom-bust economic cycles. And, fueled by overly expansive macroeconomic policies, the Turkish economy was overheating and inflation rising sharply by mid-2018. Against this already challenging backdrop, the Erdogan [...]
6 February 2019 During these Winter months, my breakfast typically consists of a big, steaming bowl of porridge! As in the Goldilocks fairy tale, however, getting the recipe right requires some experimentation. Often the same is true of monetary policy decision-making. In search of a soft landing for the US economy -- neither too hot, [...]
23 January 2019 One of the unintended, albeit unsurprising, consequences of the current period of ultra-loose monetary conditions has been the extraordinary buildup in debt worldwide. The top Chart illustrates that during the previous business cycle global debt had remained stable at what seemed an elevated level of 80% of GDP. In the aftermath of [...]
10 January 2019 Happy New Year! I am back at work for the first time since releasing my blog in mid-December. Did I miss anything??!! In a word, it's been crazy! In September, we published our 2019 Global Strategy Outlook entitled "Turning (Even More) Defensive", in which we warned that the year ahead would be [...]