12 May 2022 In my 2022 Strategy blog entitled "Avoiding Stagflation?" (published 1 December 2021), I suggested global financial market volatility was poised to rise, and equity and bond returns would be negative. On a relative basis, however, I made the case for an outperformance of European markets. Much has happened during the past six [...]
15 March 2022 Recent history is full of seminal events. The two World Wars and America's emergence as a global power, the Russian Revolution, the OPEC oil embargos, Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms (perestroika, glasnot, and detente), the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the end of the Cold War), and Deng Xiaoping's "Opening Up" modernisation all [...]
1 March 2022 The military situation on the ground following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine remains fluid, and many outcomes are still feasible (including a few catastophic scenarios). In order to begin assessing the economic fallout of the invasion, I must make some assumptions. Even now, what seems apparent is Russian President Putin has made [...]
15 April 2021 The Russian ruble (RUB) -- traditionally a petro-currency -- has not benefited from the recent rise in oil prices. Indeed, during the recent bout of Emerging Market currency volatility -- provoked by a combination of rising US bond yields and problems in Turkey -- the Russian central bank (CBR) raised interest rates [...]