Category: Economy
-
Emerging markets: Another BRIC out of the wall?
JIM O’Neill came up with the BRIC acronym in November 2001 as a way of discussing the growing economic importance of emerging markets. The four countries he chose were Brazil, Russia, India and China (the countries concerned have held joint meetings, and included South Africa in their club, but the latter was not in Mr […]
-
Commodities and the economy: Copper bottomed
COPPER has fallen sharply in the last week, reaching its lowest level in nearly four years. The metal is traditionally seen as a barometer of global activity although this very long-term chart (which we ran near the market peak in 2011) doesn’t suggest a great deal of reliability. (To update the price from the graph, […]
-
Investing: The new risk-free rate?
A LOT hangs on the concept of the “risk-free rate”. In financial theory, it is the market off which other assets are priced; companies pay an extra spread over the risk-free rate, equities offer a “risk premium” in the form of a higher long-term return to compensate for their higher short-term volatility. In most markets, […]