A brief history of toll roads
A toll road is a road where access is subject to a fee, called a toll. For this to work, two things need to be in place: i) the road needs to add value compared with other means of transport, … Continued
Is the US dollar losing ground as a global currency?
Latest data show that the US dollar remains the dominant trading currency globally, and is still the pre-eminent foreign reserve currency, though slowly losing ground, mainly to other developed country currencies. * Perhaps the question I have been asked most … Continued
Multiple causation in history: the case of the Global Financial Crisis
Each year on the Master of Finance core course on Financial Institutions and Markets, I do a session on the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09. One thing I emphasise is the many different causes of this highly influential event, which … Continued
Why markets ignore sovereign debt ratings for the US
Debt rating agencies have no particular expertise or special information on sovereign debt, especially for developed economies, so their views don’t matter * News that Fitch downgraded the US sovereign debt rating from AAA (the highest rating) to AA+ (the … Continued
What is geopolitics?
Geopolitics has two related but distinct meanings * International politics, the relationship between states, is complicated. What are a nation’s interests? Determined by who? How do national politics affect foreign policy? Can technology transcend geography? How do culture and “national … Continued
Avoiding another Cold War
A child’s enquiry about the Cold War brings back memories and raises concerns for the future * The other day a friend’s child asked me, what was the Cold War? Children ask about history all the time, but perhaps in … Continued
The beginning of the end of the oil age
Some people who know me don’t believe it, but as a child I wasn’t interested in international politics. But, like most people in Britain in the 1970s, I knew the name of the Saudi oil minister, because he was a … Continued