Journalists
Edward Hadas writes about macroeconomics, markets and metals for breakingviews. Before becoming a journalist, he worked for 20 years as an equity analyst in Europe and the US. His book, Human Good, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science is published by ISI Books in Wilmington, Delaware. He has also written a course-book about political philosophy for the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham. Edward has degrees from Columbia University, Wadham College, Oxford and the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has a website, edwardhadas.com.
It's more or less all right again in finance-world. Investors grumble, but they have been comforted by the EU's examination. Anti-bank sentiment is cooling and corporate profits look pretty good. But the economic recovery is still hesitant, and someday the stimulus must end.
The ECB head is calling for fiscal austerity now. His worry about "non-linearity" - a sudden loss of confidence - is all too justified. Now that the worst of the financial crisis and the recession has passed, it's time to abandon radical fiscal - and monetary - experiments.
The Middle Kingdom's 1.3 billion people last year consumed more energy than 310 million U.S. residents. In energy, as in finance and manufacturing, this poor country's decisions will guide the rich world. Beijing doesn't look ready to take on the global responsibilities.
The chip producer is smiling while the miner worries about a double dip. Both cannot be right. Investors are torn, but for now liquidity is ample and there are enough signs of growth to keep up their spirits. Still, it would not take much to change the mood.
The 1648 treaty established national sovereignty as Europe's guiding principle. The single currency violates this principle, as its critics hasten to point out. But the economist Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa makes a good case for the region's more flexible political-economic model.
Growth is slowing in much of the world. The good news is that there are few signs of an imminent fall into renewed global recession. The bad news is that the financial system remains both a brake on expansion and at risk of another explosion. The crisis has turned into a morass.
When the head of a leading U.S. company moans privately about China and Obama, it's news. And Jeff Immelt is right: China is self-interested and the president isn't business-friendly. But he should remember that both Beijing and Washington have good reasons for their policies.
Some want fiscal austerity, others more stimulus, but neither would really solve the basic global financial problem of too much leverage. It's time for a reset. Forgive debts and write down corresponding assets, says Edward Hadas in his valedictory column for Breakingviews.
In many rich countries, anti-settler policies are politically popular. Cultural arguments sound rude, but economic ones are considered acceptable. The problem: current levels of immigration don't make existing residents poorer. If anything, it's the reverse, at least in the UK.
Companies struggle to deal morally with wicked governments, especially when reform might be in the air. BP may have been too eager to encourage the UK to get ahead in the global race to rehabilitate Libya. But its American critics should not forget the U.S. was on the same track.
The sovereign debt crisis has shown the inadequacy of Western rating agencies. The Chinese are doing something. Its new Dagong ratings say China is a better risk than the U.S. and UK. When the world's biggest single buyer of government debt speaks, other investors should listen.
Poor countries used to be the ones giving plutocrats too much power while running irresponsibly large budget deficits and failing to overcome deep internal imbalances. Now many rich countries have swapped places and are falling into emerging market-like political-economic decay.
That's one way to interpret the analysis of derivatives expert and philosopher Elie Ayache. If the economic estimate of a fair price relies on an unknowable distribution of future values, that calculation isn't worth much. Better to think about moods and the flow of money.
Rapid-fire trading strategies were a $20 billion business in 2009. HFT dominates share trading in many markets. Proponents claim the revenues are a just reward for improving market liquidity. Maybe, but there are good reasons for doubt. Regulators need to cast a critical eye.