Whether Scotland gains its independence will not only be a question of logic and rationality but of nationalism and emotion as well. Why do the Scots want independence? Why not? Some 300 years ago Scotland was an independent country. Lately, every 18 years, the Scots have brought up the issue of independence. Scotland wants

  What does Putin want? It’s not clear. It’s likely he wants more than Ukraine. Those who believed that he would stop with South Ossetia and Abkhazia were wrong. What drives Putin? Avenging the humiliation of the USSR is a clear motivation. Having held arbitrary power within the KGB, he longs to exercise it again.

There is no such thing as an omnipotent central planner, even if the central planner has complete and perfect information and has unlimited resources and ultimate technology. Even an almost omnipotent central planner would not be able to satisfy everybody’s wants and needs. Sci Fi has explored such Utopian scenarios before but while they have

The near term direction of rates and bonds are not dependent on whether or not the Fed actually hikes rates in Q3 2015 or Q1 2016. They are dependent on when the market thinks the Fed will hikes rates in Q3 2015 or Q1 2016. It is clear from the ruminations of central bankers that

Central banks have been printing money aggressively since 2008. The US Fed is now slowing its money printing with a view to a static stance in the near future. What are the consequences for markets and the economy? When money is printed it has to go somewhere. So far it has gone into asset markets