Easing off The last time the Bank of England raised interest rates, it was quickly overtaken by events. On 5 July 2007, the Monetary Policy Committee raised rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75%, and employed restrained language in its assessment of the
Revolutionary roads A hundred years ago trading ceased on the St. Petersburg stock exchange – and didn’t start again for 74 years. Vladimir Putin chose not to mark last week’s centenary of the assault on the Winter Palace, signature moment of Russia’s October Revolution – despite some
Eastern tide Extended speeches have long been a signal of authority in Communist administrations. Last week, the Chinese president made his own supremacy abundantly clear, delivering the key five-yearly address for no less than three hours and 23 minutes. In economic terms, his emphasis was on
Flying high Bears have always been fond of Icarus. In the old Greek myth, Daedalus crafts wings to enable his escape from Crete with his son Icarus; but Icarus ignores his father’s warning not to fly too close to the sun – and plummets into the
Writing on the wall? The prime minister could surely be forgiven a little self-pity after the ordeal that was her Conservative Party Conference speech last week. She might have got over the prankster handing her a P45 (‘from Boris’) and perhaps even the persistent cough that
Political punts “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.” So sang Kenny Rogers in ‘The Gambler’, back in 1978. These days, politicians appear to have lost the knack. In late 2015,
Tonal range “It is up to leaders to set the tone,” said the prime minister in her landmark speech on Brexit in Florence last Friday. The comment came at the end of a week in which the variety of tones among global leaders had been strongly
Gaining ground It was a week of big numbers: 2,500 – the S&P 500’s record close on Friday; 3,700 – the flight distance (in kilometres) of the ballistic missile North Korea fired over Japan’s Hokkaido province into the ocean, also on Friday; and 1,512 – the
Loonie tune The common loon was never meant to appear on Canada’s dollar coin, which in June reached its thirtieth birthday. But when the dies for the new design disappeared en route to the Ottawa mint – perhaps bound for a counterfeiter’s workshop – the
Summer saga It was not a quiet and sunny month on markets. The August performance of the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, leading indices for the US and UK respectively, looks decidedly alpine, with peaks and valleys that in many cases reflected a high level
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