This week, most developed markets either hit record highs, or at least their highs for the year. Looking back, it's hard to believe that 2016 saw one of the nastiest starts on record just two months ago, headlines shrieked that global stocks had entered a "bear" market (having fallen by 20%). But while markets have recovered their poise, investors haven't. All the talk remains of central banking, radical monetary policy, and how quickly we can implement it.
A report from Deutsche Bank last week argued that obstacles to full-blown "helicopter money" where central banks print money to fund government or consumer spending directly are largely political, that money printing "has strong historical precedent" (Japan's early escape from the Great Depression in the 1930s being the main example) and that we should actively harness "the infinite power of central-bank balance sheets". The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank recently argued that the US central bank under Janet Yellen could achieve healthy US growth more rapidly by allowing "inflation to rise temporarily above" its 2% target rate.
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House prices rising fastest in areas with highest crime rates – where does your area rank?Property prices are higher in safer areas but growing more slowly than in places benefiting from gentrification and buy-to-lets
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State pension age review launched – could it rise faster in future?The government has announced a review of the state pension age, after it warned of a “retirement crisis” and revived the Pensions Commission to boost pension savings
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How capitalism has been undermined by poor governanceEditor's letter Capitalism’s “ruthless efficiency” has been undermined by poor governance, a lack of competition and central banks’ over-enthusiastic money printing, says Andrew Van Sickle.
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The biggest change in the last 17 years – the death of the “Greenspan put”Editor's letter Since I joined MoneyWeek 17 years ago, says John Stepek, we’ve seen a global financial crisis, a eurozone sovereign debt crisis , several Chinese growth scares, a global pandemic, and a land war in Europe. But the biggest change is the death of the “Greenspan put”.
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Things won't just return to normal – that's not how inflation worksEditor's letter You might think that, if inflation is indeed “transitory”, we just need to wait and everything will return to “normal”. But this is a grave misunderstanding of how inflation works, says John Stepek.
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Car hire and the strangeness of the post-pandemic economyEditor's letter A global shortage of hire cars and unusually high hotel occupancy rates sum up the post-pandemic global economy in a nutshell, says Merryn Somerset Webb, with enhanced demand meeting restricted supply.
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Everything is getting more expensive – including moneyEditor's letter Investors are about to start feeling rather more pain, says Merryn Somerset Webb – from the rising price of money.
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We may be heading for recession – and it will be no ordinary recessionEditor's letter Just as the downturn in 2020 was not a typical recession. the next downturn could be very different too, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
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What companies should be prioritising this decadeEditor's letter In a world beset by uncertainty, companies should be prioritising slack over efficiency, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
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Inflation could soon start to hurtEditor's letter Inflation is not going away. And with people's wages not keeping up, things are going to start to hurt, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
