Pandemic’s second wave and oil markets
For an industry still heavily scarred by the events of March and April, when prices went into free-fall as widespread lockdowns cut global oil consumption by around a quarter, the…
Ant Group fiasco reflects battle for China’s financial soul
China’s last-minute abandonment of Ant Group’s record-breaking IPO stems from an intensifying battle for the soul of the nation’s financial system that the fintech giant and its charismatic leader Jack…
In China, stocks-for-loans under stress as markets slide
A sharp drop in mainly small-cap Chinese stock prices has exposed a new and potentially destabilising pocket of leverage in the world's second-largest economy. The value of shares that shareholders…
EU markets hold their breath ahead of ‘MiFID’ Day
A sweeping reform of European Union financial markets will come in with the New Year on January 3, a year late due to its complexity and after eleventh-hour handholding by…
Political risk climbs in New Zealand markets as Labour leads in poll
Investors in New Zealand's financial markets are suddenly having to price in political risk after a decade of stability, as a nailbiting election race looks set to trigger a shake-up…
Poorest countries will follow a tricky path back to debt markets
Ghana and Pakistan’s return to international debt markets this week, a year after Covid slammed them shut, has been an encouraging sign for the world’s poorest countries, but investors still…
Thumbs up for emerging markets’ QE experiment but risks loom
Many emerging markets emulated their developed peers this year with bond-buying programmes that successfully tamped down borrowing costs, yet unease is also stirring about the possible hit to hard-won monetary…
Financial interventions
Hasina, a mother of seven, from District Matiari faced grave circumstances when her husband, who was the family’s sole breadwinner, suffered a sudden and severe illness that left him bedridden.…
Why markets exist
GEORGE Akerlof won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. His paper, The Market for Lemons, is a seminal work in the discipline. He wrote it in 1967 as a…
Financial inclusion and women’s integration
Mao Zedong proclaimed that ‘women hold up half the sky’ but he forgot to recognize that we still live in a man’s world. Women’s empowerment through access to finance, jobs,…
