The impact of currency volatility on economies — Last time we talked about why currencies rise and fall (read the article here). This time let’s discuss the impacts that such rises and falls have on the economy. We observed last time that if a country is highly indebted and much of that debt is denominated in foreign currencies…

Because of policy makers behaving badly — There’s been a ton of volatility in currency markets lately. But unlike with stocks (the economy) and bonds (interest rates), the drivers of currencies and the impacts of fluctuations are not always obvious. First let’s take a look at exactly what’s been going on lately. Relative to the dollar basically…

And the unrealistic expectations that result — A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about Quiet Quitting. A part of that discussion that I think is important is what are the types of employees and how do they differ? Just like there are profitable companies and unprofitable ones, there are also productive employees and unproductive ones…

It’s hard to find places to hide — It’s been an interesting and hard to predict financial market this year (then again that’s every year). Thanks to high inflation and the Fed’s response to it (i.e. hiking interest rates aggressively), tried and true sources of diversification are at least for now no more. In the picture below, you…

A look at Lebanon’s economic crisis — The pandemic and the economic imbalances that came out of it seem to have caused a lot of Ponzi schemes to be laid bare (Sri Lanka is another example). Some like Lebanon’s are at the country level. And hindsight 20–20, one wonders how the Lebanese government could have gotten away…

But the Fed will need to manage this carefully — Housing prices in certain markets are finally starting to slow. For example, the Case Shiller Index for San Francisco finally ticked down (same for several other major cities that they track, though others are still holding steady).

It faces a reckoning of its own creation — Ifound it very fitting that an article about China’s worsening real estate issues (and how it’s turned into a real Ponzi Scheme, I wrote about that here) appeared alongside an article about China’s rising inequality in a recent issue of the Economist. It’s fitting because for the longest time real…

Life gets worse for all — Amidst the debates around the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, and all this inflation, there’s been a common thread — what’s a livable wage and does everyone deserve to earn one? That’s a tough question so let’s start by inverting it. Are there significant numbers of people among the employed that…