This year’s BBC Reith Lectures are being given by the British artist Grayson Perry. Perry gave a summary of his first lecture in the Financial Times last week, on the theme, who decides what makes art good? In a witty, … Continued
One of my students yesterday told me he was going to listen to a speech called “How to live a passionate life”. Another told me she had a passion for human development. A common message from the many careers and … Continued
In the wake of the financial crisis, which showed the surprisingly fragile state of conventional western banks, people have looked for alternative ways of delivering financial services, especially credit. The IMF recently compared two types of banking that may offer … Continued
Perhaps only in Cambridge and Oxford would you observe the Vice-Chancellor of the University, dressed in full academical regalia in the fine surroundings of the Senate House, discussing advances in biomedical research, graphene and materials science. Today being the first … Continued
The Chinese government is in the process of deregulating interest rates. It took the first step in July 2013 when the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) freed the banks to set the rate charged to borrowers, other than some mortgage-related … Continued
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) produced its triennial detailed review of foreign exchange (FX) markets on 5 September 2013. What we learn from this is that the FX market is vast, growing and still dominated by dollar trading in … Continued
The fall in the Indian rupee in the last few weeks is a result of three things: i) a current account deficit that made the country vulnerable to a sudden exit of funds; ii) the inherent volatility and instability of … Continued
At a time when President Obama is under extreme pressure to take some sort of military action against the Assad regime in Syria, assuming it can be shown to be responsible for the horrible chemical weapons attack on its own … Continued
It is widely agreed, including by the Chinese government, that the Chinese economy needs to be rebalanced if economic growth is to continue in the long term, without severe tensions or a full blown crisis. The heart of the problem … Continued
Long term interest rates, as captured by the yield on long term US Treasury Bonds, have recently swung upwards after falling for three decades. It’s still too soon to say that the long bull market in bonds has ended, because … Continued
Investing in commodities (oil, gas, metals etc.) has gone from being a niche activity to a mainstream portfolio choice in the last fifteen years. This was driven by the long period of fast growth of commodity prices, which made a … Continued
The aftermath of the global financial crisis left many people with an impression of modern finance as extraordinarily complex, a web of multi-layered securities financed through strange off-balance sheet vehicles and held together by impenetrable mathematical formulas. There is something … Continued
Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky – Pink Floyd, Shine on You Crazy Diamond When Roger Waters wrote those words about the band’s former and founder member, Syd Barrett, he was referring to … Continued
There is a general misconception in the UK that suicide rates are high in Sweden. “Must be those long, dark winters”, people will offer as an explanation. That misconception has been strengthened by the “Scandi-noir” phenomenon, the great success in … Continued
This is the text of a talk I gave on 24 June 2013 to a group of nuclear experts, politicians and civil servants at the think tank Politeia in London. Nuclear power in the UK is at the sharp end … Continued