Lies, damn lies and stockbrokers.

Andrew Smithers (Smithers & Co. Ltd.) and Andrew Milligan (Standard Life Investments) Fund Strategy Magazine., 12th September 2005 Andrew Smithers, chairman of Smithers & Co, a firm that advises on international asset allocation, gives a tongue-in-cheek guide...

China Crisis.

Nikkei Business, 28th April 2005 Recent data on the economy have been almost universally bad, but comment remains cheerful. As I explained in my January article, Japanese policy makers are driven to optimism by their lack of policy options. If the economy is weak, the...

Japanese Optimism or Dickensian Economics.

Nikkei Business., 16th February 2005 Recent data on the economy have been almost universally bad, but comment remains cheerful. As I explained in my January article, Japanese policy makers are driven to optimism by their lack of policy options. If the economy is weak,...

Has Japan’s Sad Experience Taught Her Nothing?

Talk at The Keidanren Kaikan Conference Center, Tokyo., 31st January 2005 15 months ago I gave a talk at this Center in which I discussed whether the disappointing performance of Japan’s economy over the past 15 years was the result of bad luck or bad policy. I...

(Y)ending the Japanese Recovery.

Nikkei Business. 3rd December 2004 After a couple of quarters of robust growth, the Japanese economy slowed sharply in the three months to end June. When these data were published, great confidence was expressed by interested parties, including bureaucrats and...

UK and EU: The economics and politics.

HealthInvestor, 1st October 2004 The old cliché that all predictions are difficult, particularly about the future, seems especially feeble when the discussion is about Europe. We can be confident that Britain will vote “No” in the promised referendum, that this will...