Chinese officials seem pleased with the yuan’s recent progress as a global currency. The international monetary system is diversifying at an accelerating pace, said Pan Gongsheng, the governor of China’s central bank, in March. The yuan has become the fourth-most active currency in global payments, he noted. In trade finance,…
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Donald Trump’s trade hawk is plotting behind bars
Ahead of America’s election in November, company bosses, financiers and diplomats are busy calling on Donald Trump’s allies, trying to divine the economic policies that the former president will pursue if he is re-elected. But there is one man in Mr Trump’s orbit who holds more sway than most and…
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China is distorting its stockmarket by trying to prop it up
Investors in China’s stockmarket have been doing handsomely this year. The Shanghai composite index has risen by 13% from a multi-year low in February, notwithstanding a recent drop. Equity analysts and state media alike are cheering. For Xi Jinping, China’s leader, the rally was a relief, since retail investors own…
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Should you buy expensive stocks?
A new paper suggests the answer is “yes”
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Why global GDP might be $7trn bigger than everyone thought
Many people have experienced the joy of finding some spare change down the back of the sofa. On May 30th the World Bank experienced something similar, if on a grander scale. After rooting around in 176 countries, it discovered almost $7trn in extra global GDP—equivalent to an extra France and…
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European banks are making heady profits in Russia
Days after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Raiffeisen, an Austrian bank, said it was considering selling its business in Russia. Twenty-seven months later, the lender’s unit in the country is doing rather well. Its staff has grown to nearly 10,000, a 7% rise since 2022. Last year its profit reached…
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Want to avoid woke stockmarket rules? List in Texas
“Equities in Dallas,” cried the traders in “Liar’s Poker”, an account by Michael Lewis of his life as a junior banker in the late 1980s. Demotion from New York to the backwater of Texas would be a humiliation. Who wants to sling shares to yokels? Times may be changing. On…
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Should you buy pricey stocks like Nvidia?
On June 7th each share in Nvidia will become many. In one sense such stock splits ought not to matter much: they merely lower the share price, usually returning it to somewhere near $100, in order to make small trades easier. Yet for the company and its long-time backers this…
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Is America’s economy heading for a consumer crunch?
Nothing has been able to stop American consumers. At first they splashed covid-19 savings on home-exercise bicycles; now they are more likely to plump for beachside holidays. Predictions, made by bank bosses last summer, that households would be squeezed by inflation have been confounded. Instead, their outlays have powered American…
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China’s economic model retains a dangerous allure
Twenty years ago Joshua Cooper Ramo, a consultant, first wrote about the “Beijing consensus”. The Washington consensus of financial liberalisation, floating currencies and openness to foreign capital was, he posited, a damaged brand. China was pioneering its own approach to development based on principles of equality, innovation and a relentless…