Boris’s Blog

 
As promised yesterday, here’s a roundup of economic developments that dared to happen between Christmas Eve and yesterday, while most of us were on holiday and not doing much except sleeping in, putting our feet up, lighting candles, extinguishing fires, and meeting family & friends.
 
But not everyone was that lazy, so here’s a list [...]

Lots of health, strength, happiness and success to all readers of this blog and in fact to everyone else, both in 2010 and beyond!
 
The regular updates will continue tomorrow, beginning with a summary of key developments that came up in the period from Christmas to today.
 
Have a good week,
Boris
 
 
 
 
For frequent small updates on developments that [...]

It all happened so suddenly… Isabel Cavill, our publications manager, came up with the idea on Monday… But I’m already becoming friends with the idea of having to condense news to just 140 characters!
 

 
For key updates on the world economy, consumer trends and tectonic shifts in retail that are not discussed in this blog - [...]

The United Nation’s two-week summit on climate change issues in Copenhagen is over, and the thin results have disappointed many, not least because there is such a sharp contrast with the high hopes that the event had been burdoned with. But were the high hopes ever justified? And what’s going to happen next?
 
 
The UN summit on [...]

Hooray, Germany can look forward to a series of tax cuts next year (in addition to winning the football world cup in South Africa)!
 
But once economic growth is back on solid ground, in order to bring the soaring budget deficit under control, the country is in for severe hikes that are unlikely to go [...]

As Christmas gets closer and a walk along the local high street increasingly feels like an amateur rugby match (one embarrassing detail is that I get more bruises than I give), I had a great opportunity recently to watch the neighbourhood sleeping.
 
Don’t ask where this opportunity came from, as the answer might have to [...]

As the UK continues to be in the small group of countries where the recession is still not over, not even technically, it looks as if the government will close this 2009/10 fiscal year with a budget deficit worth 12.6% of GDP. This compares favourably with the 12.7% deficit in Greece which is widely seen [...]

For a moment, I thought my ear seal had dematerialised. It fell off my headset when I tried to answer the telephone in a rush this morning, and then it was gone. Not under my desk, apparently. But not on my desk either, not behind the keyboard, not behind the telephone.
 

 
Even though I’m yet [...]

Following Monday’s tough choice in favour of commodity price trends and against the 216 page atlas on globalisation from Le Monde Diplomatique, I’ve finally got around to having a closer look at the latter. To sum it up in a nutshell: very informative and definitely worth a read. Loads of figures and charts from serious [...]

One of the most tragic facts of human life is that you can only do a tiny fraction of what you would like to do, or what you feel you should do, for something as simple as time constraint - unless you are completely apathic, that is.
 
At the office, for example, I routinely find myself [...]