News

Who are the world’s best investors?


Date : Thursday June 19, 2025 The answer is not hedge funds or quant shops or short-sellers ...

Japan is obsessed with rice. And prices have gone ballistic


Date : Thursday June 19, 2025 Politicians are reaching for increasingly extreme measures ...

Japan’s debts are shrinking. Its troubles may be only starting


Date : Thursday June 19, 2025 Politicians have a yen for handouts ...

Investors ignore world-changing news. Rightly


Date : Wednesday June 18, 2025 The Nothing Ever Happens Market ...

Why today’s graduates are screwed


Date : Monday June 16, 2025 The bottom has fallen out of the job market ...

Can China reclaim its IPO crown?


Date : Sunday June 15, 2025 Hong Kong is hot. The mainland very much is not ...

What the Israel-Iran war means for oil prices


Date : Friday June 13, 2025 We investigate possible scenarios ...

How to invest your enormous inheritance


Date : Thursday June 12, 2025 Do not make the mistakes of the first Gilded Age ...

The economic lessons from Ukraine’s spectacular drone success


Date : Thursday June 12, 2025 National security is a weak argument for battery subsidies ...

European stocks are buoyant. Firms still refuse to list there


Date : Wednesday June 11, 2025 Another star prepares to move from London to New York ...

Factory work is overrated. Here are the jobs of the future


Date : Tuesday June 10, 2025 America is trapped by its industrial fantasies ...

America and China have spooked each other


Date : Tuesday June 10, 2025 With the costs of the trade war abundantly clear, officials seek to restore their truce ...

The rise of the loner consumer


Date : Monday June 09, 2025 Solo spenders are a new economic force ...

Trump’s tariffs have so far caused little inflation


Date : Thursday June 05, 2025 Our estimate of their impact will update every month ...

Stanley Fischer mixed rigour and realism, compassion and calm


Date : Thursday June 05, 2025 The former IMF, Bank of Israel and Federal Reserve official died on May 31st ...

Trump thinks Americans consume too much. He has a point


Date : Thursday June 05, 2025 He will not like the remedy, however ...

Who would pay America’s “revenge tax” on foreigners?


Date : Wednesday June 04, 2025 Overseas investors at first—then Americans ...

Why investors lack a theory of everything


Date : Wednesday June 04, 2025 Markets have no fundamental laws, which is why they are so interesting ...

Will the UAE break OPEC?


Date : Sunday June 01, 2025 We find that the Emiratis are flouting the cartel’s rules on a grand scale ...

Trump’s financial watchdogs promise a revolution


Date : Thursday May 29, 2025 The regulatory pendulum swings violently ...

India has a chance to cure its investment malaise


Date : Thursday May 29, 2025 Global trade turmoil presents a rare opportunity ...

How might China win the future? Ask Google’s AI


Date : Thursday May 29, 2025 The country’s sprawling industrial policy is beyond mere human comprehension ...

The courts block Trump’s tariffs. Can he circumvent their verdict?


Date : Thursday May 29, 2025 American trade policy is in chaos ...

Shareholders face a big new problem: currency risk


Date : Wednesday May 28, 2025 Analysing it is more important than ever. Mitigating it is a nightmare ...

Why AI hasn’t taken your job


Date : Monday May 26, 2025 And any jobs-pocalypse seems a long way off ...

Soaring bond yields threaten trouble


Date : Sunday May 25, 2025 Long-term debt is getting costlier, and not just in America ...

Trump threatens 50% tariffs. How might Europe strike back?


Date : Friday May 23, 2025 America’s tech giants are a point of vulnerability ...

Hong Kong says goodbye to a capitalist crusader


Date : Thursday May 22, 2025 David Webb was an exemplary shareholder ...

What the failure of a superstar student reveals about economics


Date : Thursday May 22, 2025 Aidan Toner-Rodgers was enjoying a meteoric rise at MIT. Then questions started to be asked about his work ...

Wall Street and Main Street are split on Trump’s chaos


Date : Thursday May 22, 2025 The president prompted a similar divide last time round ...

Will Jamie Dimon build the first trillion-dollar bank?


Date : Thursday May 22, 2025 We interview JPMorgan Chase’s boss, and his lieutenants ...

America’s scientific prowess is a huge global subsidy


Date : Thursday May 22, 2025 And it is now under threat ...

Trump will be unpleasantly surprised by America’s tariff revenues


Date : Sunday May 18, 2025 He should expect billions, not trillions ...

Economists are as confused as Trump about taxing the rich


Date : Thursday May 15, 2025 Forget technocracy. The top rate is set by gut instinct ...

Is the market up or down? Republicans and Democrats disagree


Date : Thursday May 15, 2025 Retail investing suffers from partisanship ...

China has got lucky with Trump. Can the rest of the world?


Date : Thursday May 15, 2025 Progress in trade talks has so far been slow ...

How the Chinese Communist Party learnt to love villages


Date : Thursday May 15, 2025 It wants people to move to cities. And the countryside ...

Poland: the ignored stockmarket superstar


Date : Wednesday May 14, 2025 Why the country’s shares are going gangbusters ...

Why the MAGA economy is thriving


Date : Tuesday May 13, 2025 The world’s largest market is becoming two ...

America has given China a strangely good tariff deal


Date : Monday May 12, 2025 For the next 90 days, at least ...

Trump’s trade deal with Britain will worry allies and rivals alike


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer will at least be pleased to have been first ...

Why Gen X is the real loser generation


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 Don’t cry for millennials or Gen Z. Save your pity for those in their 50s ...

Global turmoil has at least one beneficiary: currency traders


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 The foreign-exchange market has been reinvigorated by recent events ...

How Saudi Arabia is cranking up the pressure on its OPEC allies


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 Will oil prices fall much further? ...

Trump is a threat to Asia’s giant insurers


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 Not just its exporters ...

What happens when a hegemon falls?


Date : Thursday May 08, 2025 Why economists are turning to a 50-year-old book on the Depression ...

America and China prepare for an Alpine trade clash


Date : Wednesday May 07, 2025 Might tariffs fall from their mountainous highs? ...

Buy the dip: the trend that keeps stocks from crashing


Date : Tuesday May 06, 2025 Retail investors now play a useful role at times of panic ...

Warren Buffett has created a $348bn question for his successor


Date : Sunday May 04, 2025 Berkshire Hathaway’s next CEO has huge shoes to fill—and a mountain of cash to invest ...

Don’t blame imports for the fall in America’s GDP


Date : Thursday May 01, 2025 Why what you’ve read about the trade deficit hurting growth is wrong ...

Why economists should like booze


Date : Thursday May 01, 2025 A martini doesn’t just steady the nerves after a rollercoaster week ...

The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors


Date : Thursday May 01, 2025 Fund managers smell an opportunity to get even bigger ...

A takeover bid promises consolidation in Italian finance


Date : Thursday May 01, 2025 But more complication, too ...

Why China has the upper hand in its trade war with America


Date : Thursday May 01, 2025 A truce is still possible, but no one wants to be first to pick up the phone ...

How a mortgage transforms your investment portfolio


Date : Wednesday April 30, 2025 They turn retail savers into hedge-fund managers ...

America may be just weeks away from a mighty economic shock


Date : Tuesday April 29, 2025 Trade between China and America is already sinking ...

Vladimir Putin’s money machine is sputtering


Date : Sunday April 27, 2025 After years of resilience, Russia’s economy is slowing down ...

Economists don’t know what’s going on


Date : Thursday April 24, 2025 Blame crumbling statistical offices ...

Not just Trump: Asia has a trade problem of its own making


Date : Thursday April 24, 2025 A “noodle bowl” of agreements gets in the way of regional commerce  ...

Trump’s sovereign-wealth fund won’t make America richer


Date : Thursday April 24, 2025 It will just make the country riskier ...

What price cool? $31 a month, according to students


Date : Thursday April 24, 2025 The value of having the right text-message bubbles ...

Will China’s shoppers cushion the Trumpian blow?


Date : Thursday April 24, 2025 Perhaps. But nastier outcomes are also imaginable ...

Should investors spend the trade war in India?


Date : Wednesday April 23, 2025 Mumbai may be a haven, but it is not a safe one ...

Why American tech stocks are newly vulnerable


Date : Wednesday April 23, 2025 Recent market turbulence has exposed uncomfortable weaknesses ...

Trump fires at the Fed. America’s economy is collateral damage


Date : Tuesday April 22, 2025 The president may test legal bounds as he tries to sway Jerome Powell ...

Unlike everyone else, Americans and Britons still shun the office


Date : Monday April 21, 2025 What is their love of working from home doing to their economies? ...

Trump wants a certain kind of immigrant: the uber-rich


Date : Sunday April 20, 2025 He is right that America’s current “golden visa” is under-priced ...

Stockmarkets do not reward firms for investing in Trump’s America


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 The perils of reshoring ...

America is turning away China’s goods. Where will they go instead?


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 South-East Asia is exposed to both Chinese import competition and American ire ...

Can the euro go global?


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 With the dollar faltering, European policymakers have an opportunity ...

Poor countries would miss King Dollar


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 Even though they normally like a weaker greenback ...

Hell is other people’s currencies


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 As the Trump administration may soon find out ...

How Trump might topple the dollar


Date : Wednesday April 16, 2025 For the first time in many decades, the greenback looks vulnerable ...

Short-term pain, long-term gain, says Trump. Really?


Date : Monday April 14, 2025 America will be a country with shabbier roads, older airports and more dated factories ...

A flight from the dollar could wreck America’s finances


Date : Sunday April 13, 2025 The currency’s dominance enables very high debts and deficits, meaning a plunge might spell disaster ...

Investors realise Trump’s pause was not the salvation it appeared


Date : Friday April 11, 2025 As China strikes back, reality sets in ...

Can China fight America alone?


Date : Thursday April 10, 2025 The world’s two biggest economies begin an almighty trade clash ...

The tariff madness of King Donald, explained


Date : Thursday April 10, 2025 As his policy turns on a dime, pity those tasked with justifying his actions ...

China has a weapon that could hurt America: rare-earth exports


Date : Thursday April 10, 2025 It has only just begun to use it ...

America’s financial system came close to the brink


Date : Thursday April 10, 2025 Chaotic markets threatened to trigger a full-blown crisis ...

Trump’s tariff pause brings investors relief—but worries remain


Date : Wednesday April 09, 2025 Amid market panic, he backs off his most extreme “reciprocal” tariffs ...

Bond-market convulsions look extremely dangerous


Date : Wednesday April 09, 2025 Treasury yields and other signs of stress are flashing red ...

Despite the pause, America’s tariffs are the worst ever trade shock


Date : Wednesday April 09, 2025 Reed Smoot, eat your heart out ...

How to charm Donald Trump


Date : Tuesday April 08, 2025 Over the next 90 days, countries must work out what America’s president wants ...

Why China thinks it might win a trade war with Trump


Date : Tuesday April 08, 2025 The country’s officials vow to “fight to the end” ...

Where real danger might lurk in chaotic markets


Date : Monday April 07, 2025 The worry is that wild swings could cause their own damage ...

Market carnage goes global


Date : Monday April 07, 2025 As stockmarkets plunge, Donald Trump seems untroubled. That is scary ...

Trump’s trade war threatens a global recession


Date : Sunday April 06, 2025 Investors are worried. At least the economy is starting from a position of strength ...

Trump has exposed America’s world-leading firms to retaliation


Date : Saturday April 05, 2025 At companies from Alphabet to Goldman Sachs, bosses will be holding their breath ...

Five crazy Trump tariffs you wouldn’t believe 


Date : Saturday April 05, 2025 Saint Pierre and Miquelon earns a dubious honour  ...

China hits back hard against Trump’s tariffs


Date : Friday April 04, 2025 Stockmarkets plunge further in response ...

How worrying is the weakening dollar?


Date : Friday April 04, 2025 In times of trouble, the greenback normally strengthens ...

What America’s stockmarket plunge means


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 Farewell to 15 years of exceptionalism? ...

Financial markets flail in the face of America’s tariffs


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 Asia is hit hardest, but nowhere looks good ...

What a refugee camp reveals about economics


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 In Dzaleka, Malawi, everyone receives $9 a month ...

Tin, an overlooked critical metal, is enjoying a boom


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 Prized and in short supply, its price is very volatile ...

How Milei made Argentina deserving of an IMF bail-out


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 He offers the only way out of a supremely difficult situation ...

Trump takes America’s trade policies back to the 19th century


Date : Thursday April 03, 2025 The president jacks up tariffs on all countries, with particularly sharp rises for much of Asia ...

The American government’s accidental private-credit subsidy


Date : Wednesday April 02, 2025 How a Depression-era lending scheme became a trillion-dollar wheeze ...

Can the world’s free-traders withstand Trump’s attack?


Date : Wednesday April 02, 2025 Much will depend on the courage of Europe ...

Trump’s “Liberation Day” is set to whack America’s economy


Date : Sunday March 30, 2025 A rush of new tariffs will hurt growth, raise prices and worsen inequality ...

Even priests need the free market


Date : Thursday March 27, 2025 What clergymen can learn from economists ...

Can foreign investors learn to love China again? 


Date : Thursday March 27, 2025 Wall Street still needs more to coax it back. But non-American firms may be ready to return ...

The surging gold price is boosting Central Asia’s economies


Date : Thursday March 27, 2025 But foreign investors might want to tread carefully ...

Nubank has conquered Brazil. Now it is expanding overseas


Date : Thursday March 27, 2025 The country’s struggling economy provides a push ...

Trump’s tariff pain: the growing evidence


Date : Tuesday March 25, 2025 As “liberation day” nears, American businesses suffer  ...

How Europe can hurt Russia’s economy


Date : Monday March 24, 2025 Even if America lifts sanctions, the old continent has its own weapons ...

Live music seems recession-proof. Thank ticket scalpers


Date : Sunday March 23, 2025 When demand softens, the secondary market absorbs the pain ...

Even the Trumpiest stocks are suffering


Date : Thursday March 20, 2025 Investors may have misjudged which firms would thrive under the new administration ...

Beneath investors’ feet, the ground is shifting


Date : Wednesday March 19, 2025 More remarkable than slumping share prices are the forces behind them ...

The Trump administration is playing a dangerous stockmarket game


Date : Wednesday March 19, 2025 American investors are extremely exposed to a sell-off—and so is the economy ...

America’s Democrats should embrace “abundance liberalism”


Date : Tuesday March 18, 2025 Two new books contain much to commend them ...

Where will be the next electric-vehicle superpower?


Date : Tuesday March 18, 2025 Three Asian countries make their pitch ...

Can anything get China’s shoppers to spend?


Date : Monday March 17, 2025 An economic recovery depends on it. Yet a new action plan may not do the job ...

Why rents are rising too fast


Date : Sunday March 16, 2025 Rich-world tenants are angry, and have reason to be ...

Can Europe cope with a free-spending Germany?


Date : Thursday March 13, 2025 Pity the continent’s exporters ...

More testosterone means higher pay—for some men


Date : Thursday March 13, 2025 A changing appetite for status games could play a role ...

Why “labour shortages” don’t really exist


Date : Thursday March 13, 2025 Use the term, and you are almost always a bad economist or a special pleader ...

Your guide to the new anti-immigration argument


Date : Thursday March 13, 2025 Nativists say that migrants raise house prices, cost money and undermine economic growth. Do they have a point? ...

What sparks an investing revolution?


Date : Wednesday March 12, 2025 Ideas that emerged from the University of Chicago in the 1960s changed the world. But as a new film shows, they almost didn’t ...

Will America’s stockmarket convulsions spread?


Date : Tuesday March 11, 2025 Investors are hurrying to find alternatives—but all face difficulties of their own ...

How Trump provoked a stockmarket sell-off


Date : Monday March 10, 2025 Will the president win back investors? Does he even want to? ...

Does Trump really want a weaker dollar?


Date : Sunday March 09, 2025 Overturning three decades of American policy will not be painless ...

Investors think the Russia-Ukraine war will end soon


Date : Sunday March 09, 2025 The prospect of peace is reshaping markets, in ways both ominous and promising ...

Donald Trump’s tariffs are a throwback to the 1930s


Date : Thursday March 06, 2025 “Economic nationalism”, our predecessors wrote, “is almost an American invention” ...

Aid cannot make poor countries rich


Date : Thursday March 06, 2025 For decades, officials have promised to raise economic growth. For decades, they have failed ...

It is not the economic impact of tariffs that is most worrying


Date : Thursday March 06, 2025 What are the lessons of the 1930s? ...

Trump’s tariff turbulence is worse than anyone imagined


Date : Wednesday March 05, 2025 Even his concessions are less generous than expected ...

Why silver is the new gold


Date : Wednesday March 05, 2025 Safe-haven demand and solar panels have sent its price soaring ...

Trump’s new tariffs are his most extreme ever


Date : Monday March 03, 2025 America targets its three biggest trading partners: Canada, Mexico and China ...

El Salvador’s wild crypto experiment ends in failure 


Date : Sunday March 02, 2025 Its curtailment is the price of an IMF bail-out. And one worth paying  ...

America is at risk of a Trumpian economic slowdown


Date : Sunday March 02, 2025 Protectionist threats and erratic policies are combining to hurt growth ...

India has undermined a popular myth about development


Date : Thursday February 27, 2025 Extreme poverty in the country has dropped to negligible levels ...

How to get rich in 2025


Date : Thursday February 27, 2025 Forget about your career. Today an inheritance is what matters ...

How cheap can investing get?


Date : Wednesday February 26, 2025 The answer depends on whether speculators resist zany ETFs ...

Meet Trump’s fiercest opponent: the bond market


Date : Tuesday February 25, 2025 Treasury yields are falling sharply. But not for the president’s desired reasons ...

Stablecoins: the real crypto craze


Date : Sunday February 23, 2025 Policymakers are racing to catch up with their rapid rise ...

Why American credit-card delinquencies have suddenly shot up


Date : Thursday February 20, 2025 They are now at a 13-year high. How concerned should you be? ...

China’s leaders look to have blinked in their property face-off


Date : Thursday February 20, 2025 They did not want to bail out indebted firms. Now they are on the verge of doing so ...

Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are absurd


Date : Thursday February 20, 2025 At first glance, they are a bureaucratic nightmare. On a closer look, they are even worse ...

To spend big, Germany’s next government may need EU help


Date : Thursday February 20, 2025 How self-imposed constraints could lead to a bizarre outcome ...

Investors fear inflation is coming back. They may be right


Date : Thursday February 20, 2025 Is the world about to repeat the mistakes of the 1970s? ...

American inflation looks increasingly worrying


Date : Tuesday February 18, 2025 Trump’s tariffs are fuelling consumer concerns, which may prove self-fulfilling ...

Will Europe return to Putin’s gas?


Date : Sunday February 16, 2025 A deal with the devil would boost the continent’s miserable economy ...

Cheap solar power is sending electrical grids into a death spiral


Date : Thursday February 13, 2025 Pakistan and South Africa provide a warning for other countries ...

Russian inflation is too high. Does that matter?


Date : Thursday February 13, 2025 In a strong economy, price pressure can endure for a long time ...

Why you should repay your mortgage early


Date : Thursday February 13, 2025 For the first time in decades, the arithmetic suggests settling housing loans ...

How AI will divide the best from the rest


Date : Thursday February 13, 2025 Optimists hope the technology will be a great equaliser. Instead, it looks likely to widen social divides ...

The danger of relying on OpenAI’s Deep Research


Date : Thursday February 13, 2025 Economists are in raptures, but they should be careful ...

Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending


Date : Wednesday February 12, 2025 DOGE has so far disrupted everything in government bar the deficit ...

Donald Trump’s Super Bowl tariffs are an act of self-harm


Date : Monday February 10, 2025 Duties on aluminium and steel will throttle American industry and fragment global markets ...

Why Donald Trump’s protectionist zeal has only grown


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Lessons from a week of chaos ...

Narendra Modi is struggling to boost Indian growth


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Tax cuts may lift short-term output, but deeper reform is required ...

Europe has no escape from stagnation


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Things look increasingly dark for the continent ...

When will remote workers see their pay cut?


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Logging on at home is a perk, yet so far it has not been treated as such ...

Tariff uncertainty can be as ruinous as tariffs themselves


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Whatever its geopolitical merits, the “madman theory” transfers badly to economics ...

Don’t propose with a diamond


Date : Thursday February 06, 2025 Lab-grown gems may destroy both their own value and that of natural rocks, too ...

How to invest like a MAGA bigwig


Date : Wednesday February 05, 2025 Cannabis, crypto or half of North Dakota? ...

Xi Jinping shows how he will return American fire


Date : Tuesday February 04, 2025 China’s trade retaliation carries a warning of worse to come ...

How Trump’s tariff turbulence will cause economic pain


Date : Monday February 03, 2025 Mexico and Canada win a reprieve, but firms remain rattled ...

Trump’s brutal tariffs far outstrip any he has imposed before


Date : Sunday February 02, 2025 Canada, Mexico and China are going to be made to suffer ...

Why your portfolio is less diversified than you might think


Date : Thursday January 30, 2025 The most important idea in modern finance has become maddeningly hard to implement ...

Can Germany’s economy stage an unexpected recovery?


Date : Thursday January 30, 2025 The situation is dire, but there are glimmers of hope ...

Giorgia Meloni has grand banking ambitions


Date : Thursday January 30, 2025 Will Italy’s nationalist prime minister manage to concentrate financial power? ...

Tech tycoons have got the economics of AI wrong


Date : Thursday January 30, 2025 Following DeepSeek’s breakthrough, the Jevons paradox provides less comfort than they imagine ...

Donald Trump’s economic warfare has a new front


Date : Thursday January 30, 2025 The president has threatened to blow up the global tax system. Will allies be able to stop him? ...

Don’t let Donald Trump see our Big Mac index


Date : Wednesday January 29, 2025 America’s tariff-loving president could learn the wrong lessons from international burger prices ...

Will America’s crypto frenzy end in disaster?


Date : Sunday January 26, 2025 Donald Trump’s team is about to bring digital finance into the mainstream ...

Do tariffs raise inflation?


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 Usually. But the bigger problem is that they harm economic growth and innovation ...

European governments struggle to stop rich people from fleeing


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 Exit taxes are popular, and counter-productive ...

Saba Capital wages war on underperforming British investment trusts


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 How many will end up in Boaz Weinstein’s sights? ...

Has Japan truly escaped low inflation?


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 Its central bankers are increasingly hopeful ...

How American bankers dodged the MAGA carnage


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 The masters of the universe have escaped an anti-globalist revolt ...

China’s financial system is under brutal pressure


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 When will something break? ...

The Arctic: climate change’s great economic opportunity


Date : Thursday January 23, 2025 An enormous prize is on offer. When might it be grasped? ...

Donald Trump issues fresh tariff threats


Date : Monday January 20, 2025 But it may be a while before he unleashes a universal levy ...

China meets its official growth target. Not everyone is convinced


Date : Friday January 17, 2025 For one thing, 2024 saw the second-weakest rise in nominal GDP since the 1970s ...

Ethiopia gets a stockmarket. Now it just needs some firms to list


Date : Thursday January 16, 2025 The country is no longer the most populous without a bourse ...

Are big cities overrated?


Date : Thursday January 16, 2025 New economic research suggests so ...

Why catastrophe bonds are failing to cover disaster damage 


Date : Thursday January 16, 2025 The innovative form of insurance is reaching its limits ...

“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson


Date : Thursday January 16, 2025 It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game ...

Will Donald Trump unleash Wall Street?


Date : Wednesday January 15, 2025 Bankers have plenty of reason to be hopeful ...

Iran is vulnerable to a Trumpian all-out economic assault


Date : Monday January 13, 2025 Oil prices are already at a five-month high ...

Why global bond markets are convulsing


Date : Sunday January 12, 2025 Pity anyone taking out a mortgage ...

The Los Angeles fires will be extraordinarily expensive


Date : Friday January 10, 2025 They will also expose California’s faulty insurance market ...

Europe could be torn apart by new divisions


Date : Thursday January 09, 2025 The continent is at its most vulnerable in decades ...

How corporate bonds fell out of fashion


Date : Thursday January 09, 2025 The market is at its hottest in years—and a shadow of its former self ...

An American purchase of Greenland could be the deal of the century


Date : Wednesday January 08, 2025 The economics of buying new territory ...

China’s markets take a fresh beating


Date : Tuesday January 07, 2025 Authorities have responded by bossing around investors ...

Can America’s economy cope with mass deportations?


Date : Monday January 06, 2025 Production slowdowns, more imports and pricier housing could follow ...

Would an artificial-intelligence bubble be so bad?


Date : Thursday January 02, 2025 A new book by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber argues there are advantages to financial mania ...

Will Elon Musk dominate President Trump’s economic policy?


Date : Thursday January 02, 2025 He will face challenges from both America firsters and conservative mainstreamers ...

What investors expect from President Trump


Date : Wednesday January 01, 2025 Shareholders are over the moon; bondholders are readying the whip hand ...

China’s firms are taking flight, worrying its rulers


Date : Sunday December 29, 2024 Policymakers at home and abroad are anxious about offshoring ...

Manmohan Singh was India’s economic freedom fighter


Date : Saturday December 28, 2024 India’s most consequential finance minister, who later became PM, has died aged 92 ...

Why fine wine and fancy art have slumped this year


Date : Friday December 27, 2024 Investing in luxury goods was a bad move in 2024 ...

Just how frothy is America’s stockmarket?


Date : Sunday December 22, 2024 We crunch the numbers to assess just how euphoric investors became in 2024 ...

Don’t count on monetary policy to make housing affordable


Date : Thursday December 19, 2024 Unless housebuilding picks up, neither cheap nor dear money will bring relief ...

Why Brazil’s currency is plunging


Date : Thursday December 19, 2024 Fiscal and monetary policy are now pitted against one another ...

The search for the world’s most efficient charities


Date : Thursday December 19, 2024 What the data say about doing good well ...

Conflict is remaking the Middle East’s economic order


Date : Thursday December 19, 2024 Iran is boxed in as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey look to capitalise ...

Ukraine is winning the economic war against Russia


Date : Wednesday December 18, 2024 Whether that lasts depends on its ability to overcome acute shortages of power, men and money ...

The World Bank is struggling to serve all 78 poor countries


Date : Thursday December 12, 2024 Bangladesh and Niger are very different places ...

The Federal Reserve takes on Trump—and stubborn inflation


Date : Thursday December 12, 2024 Time for Jerome Powell to enter the octagon ...

What a censored speech says about China’s economy


Date : Thursday December 12, 2024 If growth is on target, why is inflation so low? ...

Bitcoin is up by 138% this year. It is a nonsense-free rally


Date : Thursday December 12, 2024 The link between digital assets and mainstream finance is strengthening ...

Which economy did best in 2024?


Date : Tuesday December 10, 2024 We rank countries on five measures ...

Are adults forgetting how to read?


Date : Tuesday December 10, 2024 A survey by the OECD suggests so ...

How much oil can Trump pump?


Date : Monday December 09, 2024 The president-elect wants to be the ultimate energy baron ...

The hidden cost of Chinese loans


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 Governments that borrow from China must pay more to borrow from others ...

Xi Jinping’s campaign against gambling is a failure


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 Chinese citizens go to great lengths to bet ...

How sports gambling became ubiquitous


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 Europe is at the centre of the industry’s growth ...

Cronyism is a problem. But not always an economic one


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 Research on the topic is surprisingly nuanced ...

France is not alone in its fiscal woes


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 Deficits look worryingly wide across Europe ...

MAGA types have a point on debanking


Date : Thursday December 05, 2024 A booming compliance industry is causing problems ...

How China will strike back at Trump


Date : Sunday December 01, 2024 Xi Jinping has set out his tariff red lines. What if America crosses them? ...

Russia’s plunging currency spells trouble for its war effort


Date : Sunday December 01, 2024 Supplies from China are about to become more expensive ...

The great-man theory of Wall Street


Date : Thursday November 28, 2024 Why finance is still dominated by bold individuals ...

Hong Kong’s property slump may be terminal


Date : Thursday November 28, 2024 Demographics and geopolitics will make a recovery harder ...

Why everyone wants to lend to weak companies


Date : Thursday November 28, 2024 An unanticipated side-effect of Donald Trump’s election victory ...

American veterans now receive absurdly generous benefits


Date : Thursday November 28, 2024 An enormous rise in disability payments may complicate debt-reduction efforts ...

Why Black Friday sales grow more annoying every year


Date : Thursday November 28, 2024 Nobody is to blame. Everyone suffers ...

Trump wastes no time in reigniting trade wars


Date : Tuesday November 26, 2024 Canada and Mexico look likely to suffer ...

How Trump, Starmer and Macron can avoid a debt crunch


Date : Sunday November 24, 2024 With deficits soaring, their finance ministers will have to be smart ...

What Scott Bessent’s appointment means for the Trump administration


Date : Saturday November 23, 2024 The president-elect’s nominee for treasury secretary faces a gruelling job ...

What Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders get wrong about credit cards


Date : Thursday November 21, 2024 Forget interest rates. Rewards are the real problem ...

Computers unleashed economic growth. Will artificial intelligence?


Date : Thursday November 21, 2024 Two years after ChatGPT-3.5 arrived, progress has been slower than expected ...

Should investors just give up on stocks outside America?


Date : Thursday November 21, 2024 No, but it is getting a lot harder to keep the faith ...

Is China really a nation of slackers?


Date : Thursday November 21, 2024 A new survey raises the question ...

Donald Trump’s gas war is about to begin


Date : Thursday November 21, 2024 It could annoy some of his most loyal supporters ...

Our Big Mac index shows how burger prices differ across borders


Date : Wednesday November 20, 2024 Using patty-power parity to think about exchange rates ...

Vladimir Putin is in a painful economic bind


Date : Monday November 18, 2024 Russia’s reliance on China is becoming a problem ...

How to make Elon Musk’s budget-slashing dreams come true


Date : Sunday November 17, 2024 We offer some suggestions ...

Economists need new indicators of economic misery


Date : Thursday November 14, 2024 Existing measures of discomfort are failing to predict elections ...

Why financial markets are so oddly calm


Date : Thursday November 14, 2024 Indicators of market volatility have plunged ...

How to pay for the poor world to go green


Date : Thursday November 14, 2024 Rich countries need not reinvent the wheel ...

The biggest losers from Trumponomics


Date : Thursday November 14, 2024 America’s president-elect wants to reshape trade, capital and labour flows ...

What does America’s next treasury secretary believe?


Date : Tuesday November 12, 2024 We take a look at the leading contenders for the job ...

Why crypto mania is reaching new heights


Date : Tuesday November 12, 2024 Are bitcoin bros right to be so thrilled by Donald Trump’s victory? ...

America’s strengthening dollar will rattle the rest of the world


Date : Sunday November 10, 2024 Donald Trump’s policies could send the greenback soaring ...

What betting markets got right and wrong about Trump’s victory


Date : Thursday November 07, 2024 They might have simply been lucky, or biased ...

Big Macs, strawberry jam and the wealth of nations


Date : Thursday November 07, 2024 Alan Heston, a pioneer in comparing economies, died on October 25th ...

India is undergoing an astonishing stockmarket revolution


Date : Thursday November 07, 2024 Small investors, rejoice—and beware ...

Barbarians on the porch


Date : Thursday November 07, 2024 Private markets are going mainstream ...

Sanctions are sinking Russia’s flagship gas project


Date : Thursday November 07, 2024 Whether that lasts is up to Donald Trump ...

The return of Trumponomics excites markets but frightens the world


Date : Wednesday November 06, 2024 It may bring stronger growth, higher inflation and a global trade war ...

Why investors’ “Trump trade” might be flawed


Date : Sunday November 03, 2024 Markets are betting Trump 2.0 would boost the dollar. It could fall instead ...

Greenland faces one of history’s great resource rushes—and curses


Date : Thursday October 31, 2024 The territory sits on an astounding number of critical minerals ...

Ireland’s government has an unusual problem: too much money


Date : Thursday October 31, 2024 A tax windfall has added to already overflowing coffers ...

American men are getting back to work


Date : Thursday October 31, 2024 The ultra-gloomy picture painted by politicians is no longer accurate ...

Why China needs to fill its empty homes


Date : Thursday October 31, 2024 The country’s economy is broken. A recovery requires a healthier property market ...

Sin taxes are suffering from a shortage of sinners


Date : Thursday October 31, 2024 Governments across the rich world are looking for alternatives ...

Will bond vigilantes come for America’s next president?


Date : Wednesday October 30, 2024 Treasury yields are rising ominously ...

Donald Trump would leave Asia with only bad options


Date : Wednesday October 30, 2024 The continent’s policymakers are too relaxed about the risks ...

America’s glorious economy should help Kamala Harris


Date : Sunday October 27, 2024 Voters are starting to notice the good news just in time for the election ...

The economics of thinness (Ozempic edition)


Date : Thursday October 24, 2024 Will skinny still be desirable when it is more easily achieved by the masses?  ...

Investors should not fear a stockmarket crash


Date : Thursday October 24, 2024 Take a long view, and shares are a lot less risky than many realise ...

How bad are video games for your grades?


Date : Thursday October 24, 2024 Chinese students provide an answer ...

What the surging price of gold says about a dangerous world


Date : Tuesday October 22, 2024 Financial fears and geopolitical tremors combine to great effect ...

Hizbullah’s sprawling financial empire looks newly vulnerable


Date : Monday October 21, 2024 Why Israel is now bombing Lebanese banks ...

The West faces new inflation fears


Date : Sunday October 20, 2024 Having moved in lockstep, America and Europe now have very different concerns ...

Trump’s trillion-dollar tax cuts are spiralling out of control


Date : Thursday October 17, 2024 His zany promises would blow up the deficit ...

Inside the secret oil trade that funds Iran’s wars


Date : Thursday October 17, 2024 An investigation by The Economist uncovers a multi-billion-dollar, America-defying network ...

Germany’s economy goes from bad to worse


Date : Tuesday October 15, 2024 Things may look brighter next year, but the relief will be short-lived ...

An economics Nobel for work on why nations succeed and fail


Date : Monday October 14, 2024 Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson tackled the most important question of all ...

Why investors should still avoid Chinese stocks


Date : Monday October 14, 2024 The debate about “uninvestability” obscures something important ...

China’s property crisis claims more victims: companies


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 Unsold homes are contributing to a balance-sheet recession ...

Europe’s green trade restrictions are infuriating poor countries


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 Only the poorest can expect help to cushion the blow ...

How America learned to love tariffs


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 Protectionism hasn’t been this respectable for decades ...

Why have markets grown more captivated by data releases?


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 Especially when the quality of statistics is deteriorating ...

Can the world’s most influential business index be fixed?


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 Two cheers for the World Bank’s new global business survey ...

Can markets reduce pollution in India?


Date : Thursday October 10, 2024 An experiment in Gujarat yields impressive results ...

Could war in the Gulf push oil to $100 a barrel?


Date : Monday October 07, 2024 Missiles are flying over a region that supplies a third of the world’s crude ...

How bond investors soured on France


Date : Sunday October 06, 2024 They now regard the euro zone’s second-largest economy as riskier than Spain ...

Can Andrea Orcel, Europe’s star banker, create a super-bank?


Date : Thursday October 03, 2024 An interview with the boss of UniCredit ...

Why economic warfare nearly always misses its target


Date : Thursday October 03, 2024 There is no such thing as a strategic commodity ...

A tonne of public debt is never made public


Date : Thursday October 03, 2024 New research suggests governments routinely hide their borrowing ...

Xi Jinping’s belated stimulus has reset the mood in Chinese markets


Date : Wednesday October 02, 2024 But can the buying frenzy last? ...

The house-price supercycle is just getting going


Date : Tuesday October 01, 2024 Why property prices could keep rising for years ...

Why is Canada’s economy falling behind America’s?


Date : Monday September 30, 2024 The country was slightly richer than Montana in 2019. Now it is just poorer than Alabama ...

At last, China pulls the trigger on a bold stimulus package


Date : Friday September 27, 2024 “Buy everything,” says an American hedge fund ...

Why the Federal Reserve is split on the future of interest rates


Date : Thursday September 26, 2024 Jerome Powell began with a big cut. What comes next? ...

A Wall Street state of mind has captured America


Date : Thursday September 26, 2024 Downtown New York is quieter than ever. Finance has never been louder ...

Is the world sleepwalking into another gas crisis? 


Date : Thursday September 26, 2024 Prices could once again spike this winter ...

How lower American interest rates will boost Africa


Date : Thursday September 26, 2024 One of the world’s worst-named financial instruments is newly relevant ...

Can Israel’s economy survive an all-out war with Hizbullah?


Date : Tuesday September 24, 2024 The country’s banks are experiencing capital flight ...

China’s central bank tries to save the economy—and the stockmarket


Date : Tuesday September 24, 2024 But it will need more help from the government ...

Governments are bigger than ever. They are also more useless


Date : Monday September 23, 2024 Why voters across the rich world are miserable ...

The world’s poorest countries have experienced a brutal decade


Date : Thursday September 19, 2024 Why has development ground to a halt? ...

European regulators are about to become more political


Date : Thursday September 19, 2024 That will worry many in Silicon Valley ...

What the history of money tells you about crypto’s future


Date : Thursday September 19, 2024 The thread from shipwrecks and sheep flocks to digital currencies ...

Why the Federal Reserve has gambled on a big interest-rate cut


Date : Wednesday September 18, 2024 The bold move carries economic and political risks ...

The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts may disappoint investors


Date : Monday September 16, 2024 Jerome Powell could still surprise on the hawkish side ...

How China’s communists fell in love with privatisation


Date : Sunday September 15, 2024 Even though they are not very good at it ...

Norway’s weak currency presents a mystery


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 The country’s economy is thriving yet the krone is becoming less and less valuable. What’s going on? ...

An American sovereign-wealth fund is a risky idea


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 Donald Trump’s latest proposal has worryingly broad support ...

Can bonds keep beating stocks?


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 After a terrible couple of months for shareholders, lenders are feeling smug ...

Why orange juice has never been more expensive


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 Pity those who rely on the breakfast staple ...

The IMF has a protest problem


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 Does it give up—or insist on painful reforms? ...

China’s government is surprisingly redistributive


Date : Thursday September 12, 2024 That is despite a stingy tax-and-transfer system ...