The ECB balance sheet is now over 4.5 trillion Euros, some 45% of Eurozone GDP

The European Central Bank (ECB) is by far the biggest holder of European bonds and the biggest (possibly the only) buyer of the weaker Eurozone (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece) countries debt.

ECB bond purchases
Asset purchase programme monthly net purchases, source ECB

Bond yields are being held artificially low by the buying programme. Continue reading “The ECB balance sheet is now over 4.5 trillion Euros, some 45% of Eurozone GDP”

Inefficiency keeps unemployment low and here is why it now matters

Everything by design is kind of complicated. And because it is complicated it is inefficient. But inefficiency keeps people in jobs. Let us explain.

Education is form of an inefficiency. Just 20% of people go on to a role that requires their knowledge from college or university education. But keeping more people in education keeps them out of the job market.

Government regulations change so often that it inherently creates several roles. The law is complicated and inefficient, but it keeps many people in a job and creates new jobs.

New technologies become a trend and all big organizations want to keep up with the trend. The result? More jobs for new stuff. And new stuff brings with it new experts, new certifications and new training. Continue reading “Inefficiency keeps unemployment low and here is why it now matters”

7 countries hiked interest rates and 7 lowered interest rates in the past 2 weeks

The US was not alone in hiking interest rates. The 6 other countries that hiked interest rates by 0.25% in line with the US were United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Macau – all of which peg their interest rates in line with the one in the US.

Meanwhile Russia, Brazil, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Kenya, Serbia and Peru all lowered their interest rate.

Map of interest rate changes
Interest rate changes between March 10, 2018 and March 23, 2018

Continue reading “7 countries hiked interest rates and 7 lowered interest rates in the past 2 weeks”

The biggest danger of social media is the way it has and continues to be used as a propaganda machine

There were two articles in the news on social media recently, one from CNBC on how most trending videos in India on YouTube are often overwhelmingly hoaxes (click here to read it) and another from the BBC on how UN investigators have said the use of Facebook played a “determining role” in stirring up trouble in Myanmar (click here to read it).

The use of Facebook data to target voters and change election outcomes has triggered massive outrage globally but that isn’t the only bad thing Facebook has done. Continue reading “The biggest danger of social media is the way it has and continues to be used as a propaganda machine”

Markets should ignore cyclical factors and focus at the structural factors instead

How often do analysts get the markets wrong? How often to fund managers get stock picks wrong? They get things wrong far more often then they get it right.

2017 was probably the worst year for hedge funds. And the start of 2018 isn’t turning out to be any better.

The problem probably lies with everyone focussing on the business cycle rather than the structural factors driving the markets. Continue reading “Markets should ignore cyclical factors and focus at the structural factors instead”

What makes the Swedish economy unique and should the world follow its economic model?

Sweden is an amazing country. It is the country where Ikea, Skype, Spotify, Ericsson, Mojang (of the Minecraft fame) were founded and the country of the world’s oldest Central bank Sveriges Riksbank.

It is also the country with the highest Value Added Tax (VAT) rate and amongst the highest income tax rates.

We look at the Swedish economic model and what makes it unique and whether the economic model could be considered as a role model for the world. Continue reading “What makes the Swedish economy unique and should the world follow its economic model?”

What we have learnt in 75 days of this site – Part 1: Visitors and visitor interaction

Thanks again to everyone reading this and contributing to the success of this website. We have had an amazing first 75 days and would like to share what we have learnt, and we hope you will learn something new from what we learnt.

In part 1 of this series, we cover visitors and visitor interaction. Continue reading “What we have learnt in 75 days of this site – Part 1: Visitors and visitor interaction”

Thank you

A massive thank you to all readers of this website.

We are pleased to report that we are now amongst the top 0.5% most visited websites in the world as per the latest Alexa rankings. This site was only registered on December 31, 2017 and this is truly an amazing achievement within 75 days.

We couldn’t have done this without you and thank you for being part of our success story.