by Jürgen

The technology sector is expected to be close to a significant growth period again. With peaking summer, what other technology could be worth a deeper look than solar photovoltaic? An update on some of the latest evolutions.

by James

Tell a person nearing retirement in a western democracy that you are reading a book called “The Pinch” with the subtitle “How the baby boomers took their children’s future – and why they should give it back” and the reaction may not be too cheerful. Tell many others that it is a book of less [...]

by Dino

The macroeconomic outlook in the US is widely recognized to be cloudy. Despite bazooka-power stimulus, the economy has not rebounded as strongly as it usually does after a recession, and most of the stimulus is behind us.  Even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged this much in his now-famous “unusually uncertain” semiannual testimony to Congress [...]

by James

Hope defeats despair? For the moment. Markets succeeded in climbing the wall of worry last week. The S&P 500 Index rose 3.6% over the week and the MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 3.4%, the US ten year yield rose (only) 3 bps and the EMBI spread tightened by 24 bps. As we’ve had noted, there [...]

by Dino

““My God! The Dukes are going to corner the entire frozen orange juice market!” The 1983 comedy Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd is fictional, but observers of the so-called soft commodities markets might spot the parallel.” Earlier this month the press reported that at the end of trading on Thursday, July 15 [...]

by Jürgen

BP will announce its Q2 results on July 27.The perfect moment to go through some lessons learned that go beyond the official statements…

by Dino

Mr. Taleb thinks that asking people to use common sense is like asking them to stop their heart beat (impossible). Yet, not all people who had a prominent role in the financial crisis lacked common sense. The problem was that several people who failed to exercise common sense were in positions of great power. Some [...]

by Dino

The new financial overhaul bill is in. Officially called the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, it has already been criticized for a variety of reasons: it is too long (at 2,300 pages; the Glass-Steagall Act was 34 pages) yet not comprehensive enough (it says nothing about Fannie and Freddie); it will give [...]