Inflation
The Fed’s new chair won by the narrowest vote ever
54–45: the narrowest confirmation vote in Federal Reserve history.
When a president tries to fire the Fed chair
On April 15, Donald Trump threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell if he doesn’t leave his post by May 15.
Energy transition is about power, not just climate
The IMF just revised global growth downward because a single strait closed. That’s not a climate story. It’s a sovereignty story, and it’s exactly what the energy transition is really about.
Real estate: bubbles, investment and housing policy
Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, and one of the least understood. Price-to-income ratios, cap rates, bubble dynamics, rent control, zoning: the concepts that explain why housing markets behave the way they do, in any country, at any point in the cycle.
Economic cycles: recession, expansion and bubbles
Economies don’t grow in straight lines. They expand, overheat, contract, and recover, in patterns that repeat, even if the triggers vary. How to read economic cycles, what the leading indicators actually signal, and why understanding this rhythm changes how you interpret almost any piece of financial news.
Interest rates: how monetary policy moves the economy
When central banks move their key rate by a quarter of a point, mortgage costs shift, currencies fluctuate, and stock markets reprice, sometimes within minutes. Understanding why that happens is the starting point for reading any major economic event of the past two decades.
Venezuela had the most oil, then killed its currency
Venezuela once had the largest proven oil reserves in the world. By 2018, its currency had lost 99.9% of its value, and a kilo of tomatoes cost more than a monthly salary. What the collapse of the bolivar reveals about the mechanics, and the political roots, of hyperinflation.
Inflation: mechanisms, causes and consequences
Prices rise, savings shrink, central banks react. Here is how the mechanism reaches you, and how to read it.