A meltdown in 2023?
The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is the recent crisis to hit the global financial system. This unfortunate turn of events has reminded me of two events that…
Preparing for the ‘petroyuan’?
I wonder how long a certain Zoltar Pozsar, New York-based economist and investment research director at Credit Suisse (CS), will keep his job – if he still has it –…
UK debt agency treads careful path to sell near-record volume of bonds
Britain is trying to limit the burden on bond dealers as it prepares to sell the highest volume of government debt since the COVID-19 pandemic against a backdrop of turbulent…
Currency risks? US corporates yawn
Muted gyrations in foreign exchange markets has turned companies complacent about hedging currency risks, and as the third-quarter earnings season gets underway investors should brace for US companies to report…
Growth stake
When e-commerce company Jumia wanted to go public in 2019, Africa’s most celebrated start-up didn’t list in Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali or Johannesburg. It went to New York instead. That tells…
Three nations, three destinies
History moves in cycles – rising, pausing, reinventing. It rewards those who adapt and punishes those who wait. And in the story of nations, 30 years is more than enough…
Why innovation has stalled
In a world where innovation defines the speed of progress and nations' fate, particularly their banking, media and telecommunications industries, Pakistan's business sector remains stubbornly resistant to transformation. While global…
Gandhi would weep
On May 12, 2025, the River Sutlej wept quietly at its banks. It had borne witness to centuries of civilisation, to the crumbling of empires, to the forging of borders…
Oligarchs already own much of US – can they buy democracy?
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could…
Cracks emerge in Trump’s MAGA coalition
Donald Trump has yet to move back into the White House and already fissures are opening in his coalition, amid squabbling between Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley “tech bros”…
