Tag: politics

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Imperfect lending decisions

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Ray Dalio, who founded Bridgewater Associates  five decades ago and one of the greatest investors of our times who anticipated the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2010-12 European debt crisis, shares for the first time his detailed explanation of what he calls the “Big Debt Cycle”.  Understanding this cycle is critical for helping policymakers, investors, and the general public grasp where we are and where we are headed with the debt issue. Dalio’s model points towards surprisingly straightforward solutions for dealing with the debt problems, that the US, Europe, Japan, and China face today. Global macro investors make bets on countries, … Continue reading Imperfect lending decisions

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Constant struggle to find daily necessities

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In 1966, China is on the cusp of a decade of upheaval, and the furnaces of Old Kiln have never been this cold. The village’s once-famed ceramics production has almost ground to a halt. Only ancient grudges smoulder beneath its poverty-stricken streets, never forgotten by the two families that preside over the village making them “backward, simple, petty, absurd and cruel” Jia writes. Between them stands the adopted Inkcap, whose mysterious origins leave him unloved and barely tolerated. Historically they have always been told what to do, and they have had the inertia of people trained in passivity. “Everyone is … Continue reading Constant struggle to find daily necessities

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Challenging expectations

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Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google thinks why Britain has much more global influence than it thinks. Ever since the global financial crisis, Britain has been through a difficult period, leading many to conclude the country is doomed to inevitable decline. Jeremy Hunt was at the top of government as both Foreign Secretary and Chancellor, in the last two Tory governments, and he rebuts those who think Britain is no longer capable of shaping the world we live in. There is a real urgency, in that the UK’s need for growth and security through foreign policy is clear. Hunt writes … Continue reading Challenging expectations

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Transformation of the World’s largest democracy

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Indira Gandhi’s ascent as prime minister in 1966, and ruled for fifteen years, which was unforeseen and soon emerged as one of the most powerful political leaders of her times, who transformed the world’s largest democracy.  Historian Srinath Raghavan, tells the story of Indira Gandhi’s political career and the momentous changes that India experienced under her leadership. From her tentative start in high office to her remarkable electoral victories, the dark days of the Emergency of 1975-1977, and her assassination at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Raghavan sheds new light one her politics and government, as well … Continue reading Transformation of the World’s largest democracy

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Wolf in Sheep’s clothing

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Historian Dalrymple whose visceral understanding of India, in Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. This relentless rise of in August 1765, the East India Company, who defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army- what we would now … Continue reading Wolf in Sheep’s clothing

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Saudi: A country that is all too easily misunderstood

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A new history of Saudi Arabia spanning its eighteenth-century origins to the present day. Saudi Arabia on the wealthiest countries in the world, a major player on the international stage and the site of Islam’s two holiest cities and also one of the world’s only absolute monarchies. David Commins narrates the full history of Saudi Arabia from oasis emirate to present-day attempts to leap to a past-petroleum economy. Moving through the ages, Commins traces how the Saud dynasty’s reliance on sectarianism, foreign expertise, and petroleum to stabilize power has unintentionally spawned secular and religious movements seeking accountability and justice. He … Continue reading Saudi: A country that is all too easily misunderstood

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Britain hands Chago Islands to Mauritius to address historical grievances

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UK signs  £101 million-a-year deal to hand over Chagos Island, a Joint UK-US military base in the archipelago , Diego Garcia, to Mauritius. The British government felt that without ceding sovereignty to Mauritius, the operation of the base would become unworkable which would pose a great threat to UK security. Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs that “without this deal, within weeks, we could face losing legal rulings and within a few years the base would become inoperable”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable … Continue reading Britain hands Chago Islands to Mauritius to address historical grievances

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Updating modern corporate finance

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“Stagflation” of the 1970s – the improbable combination of high unemployment and runaway inflation-  proved painful and protracted, but explains the U.S. stock market’s remarkable forty-year run of 12 per cent average annual returns since then. Why is Japan still mired in a decades-long recession- and the Chinese economy in a tailspin? What account for the resilience of U.S. stock and labour markets in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and in the face of the Fed’ record interest rate hikes? Donald H Chew, editor of the journal of Applied Corporate Finance, traces the revival moment of America’s corporate and stock … Continue reading Updating modern corporate finance

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Emergence of Americas

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Yale professor, Greg Grandin, a Pulitzer-winning historian comes America, América, the first definitive history of the western hemisphere,  a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both continents- perfect for reader of How the World Made the West. The story of the United States’ unique sense of itself was forged facing south – no less than Latin America’s was indelibly stamped by the looming colossus to the north.  Grandin reveals how the Americas emerged from constant, turbulent engagement with each other, shedding new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolivar … Continue reading Emergence of Americas

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Combine curiosity, irreverence, power of calmness and warmth to deal with difficult people

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Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural economist at the London School of Economics, defines Beliefism as a discrimination against those with different beliefs to us. In today’s civil discourse, one exacerbated by the anger-stoking effects of digital doomscrolling and the perverse incentives the media has constructed for political discourse (Anyone who changes policy in response to criticism, for example, is gleefully reported to have performed a “humiliating U-turn”.) The citizens of the US and UK are becoming more polarised and inclined to avoid altogether those who aren’t their ideological comrades. Do you really avoid people who are strongly against immigration? … Continue reading Combine curiosity, irreverence, power of calmness and warmth to deal with difficult people