Marketwatch August 2020
What’s going on with gold? Marketwatch has a confession; he really does not know a lot about gold. His knowledge is largely confined to see it on his beloved spouse’s neck and fingers, accompanied by sparkly stones which, both he and his banker, have been promised they are real. The other thing he knows is […]
MarketWatch July 2020
Does our national debt matter? In September 2008, MarketWatch was on a plane to London. Earlier in April, a US bank called Bear Stearns which had pioneered the selling of securities back by sub-prime house loans, had incurred so many losses on the product, that it failed and was bought by a bigger rival at […]
MarketWatch June ’20
By David Prattent What is real? As Marketwatch gazed out over his garden, mentally listing the winter jobs, his thoughts turned to the state of the world. We have talked before about the confusing environment which we are witnessing at the moment. Trying to make sense of it is all but impossible. But there is […]
MarketWatch May ’20
By David Prattent Is it yes, or no, or maybe? MarketWatch has spent the morning ploughing through some of the world’s news publications and journals. The amount of column space devoted to the coronavirus pandemic is truly staggering. What on earth did we do for news before this happened? And perhaps just as importantly what […]
MarketWatch April ’20
By David Prattent Notes form a bunker MarketWatch was not alive for World War II, but he is starting to feel an affinity for those souls who spent much of their time underground in bunkers. Despite the company of his dear spouse, Mrs MarketWatch, and Tess, the black Labrador, even living on what is called […]
MarketWatch February ’20
By David Prattent MarketWatch moved his attention away from his glass of Rioja and turned his mind to the Baltic Dry Index. Well don’t you? The index measures the cost of shipping raw materials over a number of different routes around the world. Why is called the Baltic Dry Index when it has no association […]
MarketWatch December ’19
By David Prattent MarketWatch is watching economic developments with not a little bemusement, tinged with a modest amount of despair. It seems we have plenty of information about the problems, but no-one to take charge of the solutions. Our politicians just blame each other, which is, after all, their job. But MarketWatch can’t help feeling […]
MarketWatch November ’19
By David Prattent MarketWatch is in the process of watching one of those historical dramas that British programme makers are so good at. Life, he reflected, was far less complicated then. If you wanted to convey a decision, you wrote to someone. They would read it and write back to you. The process could take […]
MarketWatch October ’19
By David Prattent Marketwatch and his dear spouse have just returned from a short break in Singapore. A fascinating place but, in common with other export-oriented countries, its economy is faltering. World economic conditions, cooling demand and the US-China trade war are taking their toll everywhere it seems. We have been chatting for a couple […]
MarketWatch September ’19
By David Prattent Marketwatch has put the financial press aside for a couple of days. It’s all making his head hurt. And worse, the volume of the news has meant he hasn’t had the chance to study his September wine catalogue. The yield curve has inverted! Man the lifeboats! Hide your savings under the bed, […]