Spent the afternoon at a water-park in Dubai, mainly reading Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel, The Road . If there's ever a book I don't recommend reading in a...
Jules Evans
Jules Evans is a freelance journalist and writer, who covers two main areas: philosophy and psychology (for publications including The Times, Psychologies, New Statesman and his website, Philosophy for Life), and emerging markets (for publications including The Spectator, Economist, Times, Euromoney and Financial News).
Ukraine down the drain
One of the biggest risks for the global economy right now is Ukraine. The country's currency is rapidly depreciating, which is causing serious trouble for the...
Labour takes the fight online (and loses)
Last month saw the launch of several new online initiatives by Labour, as it desperately tries to find a strategy to beat the Tories in the coming election....
Attack of the killer zombies
There's a great new piece by Nouriel Roubini, the economist nick-named Dr Doom for his early prediction of the extent of the losses in the US banking sector -...
What next for Chimerica?
What next for 'Chimerica', as Niall Ferguson calls the unholy alliance of Chinese capital and US debt that has grown up over the last decade. China is...
Bailing out the bail-out
Goldman Sachs estimates the US government will issue US$2.5 trillion in debt this year, way up on the US$850 million it issued last year. That's partly...
Russky Standard
I see my first ever boss, Geordie Greig, has been nominated as the editor of the London Evening Standard by the new owner of the paper, playboy oligarch and...
What are the odds the eurozone will collapse?
About 10-20%, if you believe the bond markets. Spreads on the debt of southern European sovereigns like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy have now widened to...
Central Europe versus Russia
Last week, I saw the leader of the Hungarian opposition, Viktor Orban, call for a new central European security alliance against Russia. Orban warned that the...
Actis bold as love
We recently published an interview with the CEO of Actis, Paul Fletcher, in www.emeafinance.com. Actis is the emerging market private equity fund which was...
Who’ll bail out the IMF?
Analysis of the challenges facing the IMF, in a world where the reform process is stalled, demand on its money is growing, but funds are getting short.
Georgia and Ukraine barred from NATO
This may have escaped people's attention (it did mine), but Ukraine and Georgia were told they couldn't join the NATO club this week, and Georgia was given a...
CEE In Crisis
I've covered eastern European markets for about eight years, and all of those eight years, the region has been on a growth trajectory, either because it is...
Stoicism and Catastrophe
There's an interesting interview with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao by Fareed Jakaria on the CNN website. Wen again talks about his love of Marcus Aurelius'...
Effing Miliband
I'm in Moscow for a few days, where the weather is miserable and the mood is worse. The stock market has lost 50% of its value since May, much of it since the...
To stop Russian expansionism, take away the excuse for it
I've argued before that if the West wants to stop Russian expansionism, it has to take away the excuse for that expansionism - the oppression of Russian...
The FCO’s failure over Russia
The typical criticism of the Foreign Office is the one eloquently expressed in John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener - that they are pitiless practitioners of...
Saakashvili chews over his next move
'OK...we call it a tie, then?'
Rahr on war
A good source for comment on foreign policy in the former Soviet Union is the website of the Eurasia Heritage Foundation, in my opinion Russia's best...
Omagh: the bomb that started the government’s CBT programme
Ten years ago last week, a bomb went off in a parked Vauxhall car on Market Street in Omagh, a market town with a population of 22,000 in County Tyrone,...
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