As several countries announce giant packages of tax relief and increased public spending to cushion their economies from the impact of COVID-19 containment efforts, most financial news commentary we have seen presumes these governments will pay for these efforts by...

Whenever there is news coverage of events with a financial impact, we see big numbers. The Australian wildfires are estimated to have caused A$4.4 billion in damages so far.i Germany’s budget surplus hit €13.5 billion in 2019.ii Italy has to sell €50 billion worth of...

What Causes Inflation? With eurozone inflation below the ECB’s target of just under 2%, explanations—and policy solutions—abound amongst financial publications we review regularly. To help you understand the situation, here is a guide to what inflation is and what...

What is the best way to measure your portfolio’s performance? Comparing starting and later portfolio values over a select period of time? Or how your performance squares with someone else’s, like your neighbour’s? Whilst these approaches may seem logical, we think...

Much of the academic literature we have reviewed posits demographics determine long-term economic growth. Rising populations mean more demand for just about everything: food, housing, clothing, energy, medical care, services—you name it. It also means a rising...

Will a weakening Chinese economy hurt European exporters and drive a new continental recession? Fisher Investments UK has seen this question pondered throughout financial news outlets in recent months, especially as eurozone manufacturing readings…

Mario Draghi steps down as ECB President at October’s end, and outgoing IMF head Christine Lagarde is set to take his place. Since EU leaders nominated her over the summer, we have seen many financial pundits try to assess what her appointment will mean for the ECB’s...

Increasingly, many developed world countries’ fixed-interest securities’ yields have gone sub-zero. German government debt yields are currently negative out to 17 years.i Japanese? 15 years.ii Whilst negative long-term rates in Germany and Japan aren’t particularly...

Over two months after UK and EU leaders delayed Brexit, things are looking a bit grim, in our view. UK politics seem in chaos to us. Factories are reeling, with April factory output its lowest since 2002, causing monthly gross domestic product (GDP, a...

The yield curve charts a country’s interest rates across all loan maturities—from short-term rates set by the central bank to long-term government bond rates traded in the marketplace. It is widely thought to be a…

Spring has sprung! And with the warmer temperatures, sunnier days and budding flowers we expect another yearly regularity to hit soon: financial media’s warnings you should exit equities before the annual summer doldrums hit markets – to sell, that is, in May. But in...

Legend has it Albert Einstein called compound growth the eighth wonder of the world—“the most powerful force in the universe.” However, you don’t need to be a genius to understand how compounding works. Compounding’s core concept is earning a return on returns. Take...

In early February, Italian Co-Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio met with France’s Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) protestors. The leader of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) thus triggered a diplomatic row, with French Prime Minister…

Is a global recession lurking behind 2018’s volatility? Our survey of financial media publications suggests many believe so, seeing slowdowns in some economic data as evidence. But whilst recession fears may have risen, a look at a broad swath of data doesn't support...

With eurozone GDP (gross domestic product, a government-produced estimate of national economic output) growth slowing in Q3, our survey of financial media publications turned up many worries the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) mid-December decision to end its...

In our survey of media publications, we have seen some commentators argue Q3’s slower eurozone growth presages recession, but we think this conclusion is premature. Growth headwinds cited in much of the recent commentary we encountered seem overstated. Meanwhile,...

In our regular review of financial media, we often find headlines speculating over what will affect equity prices. Many treat the relationship between news and market movement as clear cut. For example, a weak economic data report must automatically be “bad” for...

Amid the many negative trade headlines we have seen recently in our survey of media publications, it is perhaps easy to overlook positive trade developments. But several new trade deals are in the works and nearing completion, underscoring what we think is a bullish...