Month: July 2014

It is the same mentality that has propelled Aldi to one of the world’s most successful retail chains, one that is driving Germany’s astonishing competitiveness. Except the international economy does not quite run like a supermarket.

The older I get, the more I feel at home in the hardly changing world of government-provided services. It’s scary, and I am only 39.

In an ideal world, an economic liberal like myself would happily enter a debate supporting the moot that it is financial fundamentals driving investment markets. But it is not an ideal world, neither for economic liberals nor for investment markets.

For the Germans, July 8 was a good day. Not just because it also happened to be your columnist’s birthday or because of Germany’s emphatic 7-1 win over Brazil in the World Cup, but because this year, it also marked Germany’s Tax Freedom Day.

Economic forecasts were, of course, only invented to make weather forecasters look better. And, as Churchill said, if you ask two economists you get two opinions, unless one of them was Keynes in which case you get three. With no shortage of jokes about economists and their ability to foresee the future, Callam Pickering asks why the profession does not do better – and why forecasts are still useful.

Doctorates, warranties and Andie MacDowell may differ in many ways. One thing they have in common: They are strong signals.

Published in Business Spectator (Melbourne), 3 July 2014 Last week, I wrote about Angela Merkel’s declining influence in Europe. For a number of domestic and international reasons, the German Chancellor can no longer enforce austerity and economic reforms in the eurozone. She is already past the peak of her power, I concluded. What I did not […]