Daniel Hannan, the well-known British politician, says Switzerland “has pretty much everything going for it: low taxes, high wages, minimal unemployment, dispersed government… direct democracy.” According to UN measures of healthcare, education, life expectancy and the like, it is the world’s third best country in which to live.
Australia’s economy has more than recovered from damage done by the pandemic. “Only five other countries can boast an economy that’s larger now than before the pandemic” says Kristian Kolding of Deloitte Access Economics.
The Group of Seven major economies have agreed to introduce a 15 per cent minimum corporate tax rate to be applied worldwide by national governments. Less is being said about seeking global agreement on the basis of implementing the tax – a more important and much more controversial issue.
Whether inflation proves to be sustainable or not, historic evidence is that in such environments, portfolios of low price-to-earnings ratios outperform, says NTAsset’s Kenneth Ng. The fund is a specialist in small/midsized Southeast Asian and Indian shares. It is confident that its holdings will deliver almost a doubling of earnings over the next three years.
The way governments have acted to deal with the pandemic has come as a shock to all of us. A big shock. They have thrown money at the problem on a scale rightly compared with that of fighting a world war, abandoned any pretence of thrift in public affairs, and ordered about their citizens like schoolchildren. With hardly any opposition.
The consensus view of the US central bank and of economists is that the coming surge in prices will be temporary and therefore not to worry about too much. Several factors support the opposing view on inflation…
Most of us think that “infrastructure” means very large physical structures – bridges, tunnels, roads, railways, airports. Useful things that we’re generally in favour of, but needing large public bodies to finance and manage.
The true costs of renewables are fudged by not counting external and replacement costs, argues commentator Charles Hugh Smith…
The shortage of semiconductor microchips keeps getting worse. Why can't we just make more? Bloomberg explains…
House prices in developed economies are soaring. In America they increased by 11 per cent in the 12 months to January, their fastest pace in 15 years. In New Zealand, prices are up by 22 per cent; in Germany by 9 per cent and in Britain by 8 per cent.
