Columns

India Insight: Mukesh Ambani sets high bar for Jio

1 June 2020

At $68 bln, the tycoon’s telecom operator is being valued like a tech startup. It’s backed by A-list investors from KKR to Facebook, and more are queuing up. Growth has been impressive. But the wannabe super-app could encounter serious competition in the country’s digital race.

Hadas: Covid gives monetary extremists false hope

27 May 2020

Those who fear rising prices think anti-pandemic stimulus will surely unleash uncontrolled inflation. Deflation-worriers are just as certain that the global demand shock means their old enemy is lurking. Both disasters are possible, but policy and habit point to price stability.

Cox: Quarantine in Switzerland is surprise luxury

19 May 2020

As the country reopens, the cliché of neighbours chastising you for not sorting recycling properly is to be praised. The key takeaway: a society that prizes self-responsibility, respects rules and institutions and plans for rainy days is a good place to shelter from the storm.

Dixon: We need green deals, but will we get them?

18 May 2020

There’s a growing investor consensus that post-pandemic recovery plans should be green. But what should those “green new deals” look like? How should they be funded? And how can governments be pressurised to play ball?

Hadas: Welfare states will be big Covid-19 winners

13 May 2020

National systems of income support and social care are being expanded in the fight against the pandemic. Some of the special welfare measures are going to become permanent parts of governments’ repertoire. That will benefit marginalised groups, especially in the United States.

Cox: Brace for America’s version of Saudi Aramco

5 May 2020

And that’s just a start. After the pandemic, governments will foster the creation of national champions. Bigger, supposedly safer and more diversified will be in. Conglomerates may even be fashionable again. In the hardest-hit sectors, like the oil patch, anything can happen.

Chancellor: Big is beautiful will also be ugly

4 May 2020

The clamour to save jobs and a prolonged shift to low interest rates will give big companies the upper hand in consolidating the small and the weak. This ever-greater concentration of industry and power will ultimately exacerbate the sorts of shortages now hurting big economies.

Dixon: Bailouts will store up lots more trouble

28 April 2020

Struggling individuals, businesses and countries deserve financial support during the pandemic. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves. Massive, taxpayer-funded rescues may encourage excessive risk-taking in the future and provoke new populist backlashes when the bills need to be paid.

Cox: Windfall-tax Covid-19’s sweepstakes winners

27 April 2020

Leaders are justifying bailouts saying the pandemic is “nobody’s fault”. By that logic giants like Amazon gaining ground as small firms collapse were handed unequal advantages by states. Tariffs such as those imposed on oil drillers after OPEC’s embargo could level the field.

Hadas: Cheap data at last gets its due

22 April 2020

Faster and inexpensive connections are being appreciated now more than ever, but U.S. government inflation measures miss most of the gains. A fairer count would push up historical GDP growth, new research shows. The pandemic suggests even the revised figure lowballs the value.