Sunday Business Post

Now there we were, thinking that financial markets didn’t like defaults. In fact, we were warned that if we were to do something as dastardly as not pay Anglo unsecured creditors, the sky would fall in. This line has been followed by our state as if it were gospel. Yet on Friday, we see that…

The other day, the cost of filling up our family car rose to €109, and the price of oil is going up and up every month. Looking out on the huge reclamation work going on in front of me at Abu Dhabi’s Corniche region (where I am speaking at a conference), I pondered on the…

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” So said Erasmus – and who are we to argue with the great man? Erasmus spent his life following his own independent path, eschewing the easy life of the tenured academic herd. Instead, he constantly questioned his own Church at a time when questioning…

When the left and the right are at one about something, you know there is something odd happening. Both the left and the right believe that Greece should not be lent any more money and, interestingly, they both see the banks as the only real beneficiaries. For right-wingers and those who, in economics terms, believe…

It looks like Greece will be kicked out of the eurozone – perhaps as early as this week. Indeed, it is more likely, for the sake of optics, that the Greeks will choose to leave at some stage. If it doesn’t happen this week because there is a deal stitched together, it is likely to…

What a difference a month makes. We entered this year with a debt  crisis in Europe and a growth crisis in the US. Investors were  terrified, governments were falling and there was a total lack of  political leadership both in Europe and the US. Corporations were in  retrenchment mode and even the bulls were retreating,…

Water into wine? I think not. Rather than talk about who went ‘mad borrowing’ last week, let’s focus on why it happened, because I want to explain what is happening right now in the financial markets. I would also like to make the point that central banks are becoming – yet again – instruments of…

Last weekend, I went to see Roddy Doyle’s clever adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector at the Abbey. Go to see it if you can – it is wonderful. Of the many highlights, one of the most memorable is Don Wycherley’s performance as the Mayor. As I left the theatre, I was marvelling at Wycherley’s…

The European debt crisis is moving swiftly to the next phase following the downgrade of France and the collapse of the Greek negotiations with its creditors last Friday night. It is becoming increasingly obvious that there will be no deal in Greece. This is good news because it means the end of the pass-the-parcel-ponzi-scheme, whereby…

One of the many advantages of advising a large Italian company – apart from getting paid on time – is that every now and then, you get invited to symposiums in lovely parts of Europe’s most beautiful country. This year, the company – a proper manufacturing company that has specialised in design excellence, so that…