The Library

The Current Big Themes in Economics influencing Australia Article by UBS It has been a big week for financial markets with the US Dow Jones chalking up a fresh record high in time for the 30th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash. On the other side of the world, the long-awaited 19th Party Congress …Read More »

Bitcoin is fiat money, too What Charles Kindleberger has to say about cryptocurrencies The Economist FINANCIERS with PhDs like to remind each other to “read your Kindleberger”. The rare academic who could speak fluently to bureaucrats and normal people, Charles Kindleberger designed the Marshall Plan and wrote vast economic histories worthy of Tolstoy. “Read your …Read More »

The 5m-odd Norwegians own more than 1% of all the shares in the world The Economist A year earlier than expected, Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund, the world’s largest, surpassed $1trn in assets on September 19th. It had gained over $100bn in the past year, thanks in large measure to the global stockmarket rally in 2017: around …Read More »

Andrew Lo wants you to realize that traders are animals. Bloomberg Every reigning theory of finance has holes. The efficient-markets hypothesis says markets are rational and self-regulating, but it doesn’t account for crashes and crises; behavioral finance blames market breakdowns on investors’ short-term thinking, but it fails to account for group dynamics or predict future …Read More »

CBS Interactive Inc Legendary investor Warren Buffett talked up the U.S. economy Tuesday night, predicting the Dow Jones Industrial Average would be “over 1 million” in 100 years. Buffett, who was speaking in New York at an event marking the 100th anniversary of Forbes magazine, displayed his characteristic bullishness on America’s long-term prospects. “Whenever I hear people talk pessimistically …Read More »