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New strictures have breathed life into shadow banking – it now constitutes about a quarter of the global financial system – and regulators fear they have created a monster. But look closer and there's much more to this financial Frankenstein…
Euromoney February 2012
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It is hard to be optimistic about 2012. But much of the bad news is reflected in prices and a confluence of factors could yet provide support for equity markets and other risky assets.
Euromoney January 2012
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There is no solution to indebtedness and the inevitable and painful process of deleveraging, so lean back and protect yourself like Muhammad Ali and the US Congress.
Euromoney December 2011
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The UK is in dire economic straits. There needs to be a shift in the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy to buy the government time and fund a British development bank.
Euromoney November 2011
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Faced with an unpalatable menu of policy choices, there is concern that another course will be taken: financial repression. It is the economic prescription favoured by Fagin. Bondholders should beware.
Euromoney October 2011
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The economies of developed nations are now dangerously dependent on consumption funded by debt to spur growth. Turning the clock back to make do and mend won’t be painless but it is both inevitable and long overdue.
Euromoney September 2011
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The flurry of deals among stock exchanges is a fight for relevance in a world in which regulation and technology have lowered barriers to entry. It is a battle the London Stock Exchange lost many years ago.
Euromoney July 2011
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Three months before the start of the credit crunch in 2007 this column predicted that the IPO of Blackstone Group marked the “endgame for private equity”. With Glencore listing in London there might be good reasons to call time on the commodities bubble.
Euromoney June 2011
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The decision by Standard & Poor’s to place the US on credit watch with a “negative outlook” is a watershed. With politicians unwilling to attack spiralling welfare costs, a bond crisis might be just around the corner.
Euromoney May 2011
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Investment consultants are taking a leaf from Madonna’s playbook and reinventing themselves. Implemented consultancy is causing a commotion but it is far from clear who the winners will be.
Euromoney April 2011
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Goldman Sachs’s Gary Cohn thinks hedge funds, not banks, are likely to cause the next financial crisis. He needs to take a long hard stare in the looking glass.
Euromoney March 2011
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Affluenza has caught a cold. Those hoping to piggyback off an ever expanding middle-class piggybank should take due note.
Euromoney February 2011
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During the financial crisis big became synonymous with bad. But in pensions management super-sizing can seriously increase your wealth.
Euromoney December 2010
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Pension funds are slashing their allocations to equities and reorienting their portfolios to more accurately match liabilities. Strategically that makes sense. Tactically it smacks of buying at the top and it is already creating distortions in markets.
Euromoney November 2010
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The Saga of Iceland’s involvement in the financial crisis has elements of tragedy and farce. But it would be unwise to underestimate this nation of warriors, poets and volcanoes.
Euromoney October 2010
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If central banks want to become macro prudential regulators, identifying asset price bubbles is necessary but not sufficient.
Euromoney September 2010
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Currency debasement and inflation have ultimately been bad news for men of modest means. Lincoln Rathnam learns lessons from the history of Emperor Diocletian on why our present penchant for McMansions might point to an Appalachian future.
Euromoney August 2010
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The euro will survive. But the self-preservation instinct of its architects must mean the defenestration of Greece.
Euromoney June 2010
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The ties that bind sovereign issuers and investors are intricate and complex. With sovereign defaults a real and present danger, they should be untangled before it is too late.
Euromoney May 2010
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Defined benefit pensions are rapidly being supplanted by defined contribution plans, especially in the UK and US. However, it is increasingly clear that many DC schemes are not fit for purpose.
Euromoney April 2010
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The notion that “you can’t time the market” has somehow become received wisdom. It is, of course, nonsense. The experience of two very British institutions and some data analysis reveals the truth behind the cant.
Euromoney March 2010
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Professional investment managers and their clients may have given themselves an impossible goal of generating superior short-term returns.
Euromoney February 2010
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Reports of life in the barbarous relic have been greatly exaggerated.
Euromoney January 2010
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The financial crisis might be the making of hedge funds. Institutional investors will change the industry for the better by demanding onshore structures, independent administration and greater transparency. Mainstream financial centres should see this as an opportunity and ditch the fatuous parts of proposed
Euromoney December 2009
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In the Greek myth, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods forever to push a rock uphill only for it to roll back down. This is a familiar fate for those seduced by the cult of equity investing.
Euromoney November 2009
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Policymakers like to talk up the dollar. But an orderly decline of the greenback would be no bad thing.
Euromoney October 2009
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In July this column read the last rites over some unexpected victims of the crisis. Happily, some deaths have been greatly exaggerated while other parts of the economy and markets are due for a renaissance.
Euromoney September 2009
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There are foxy footprints all over current policy choices. But cunning plans and clever innovations have a nasty habit of unravelling and causing greater pain than choosing the straightforward course.
Euromoney August 2009
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The credit crunch and recession will reshape finance and markets in some surprising ways.
Euromoney July 2009
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Quantitative easing is being hailed as a policy panacea. The problem is that it sounds a lot like a prescription that causes the very problems it is designed to treat.
Euromoney June 2009
