Largest Risk Facing Global Economy
This is the lack of policy instruments at the disposal of central banks in the event of a financial crisis: with interest rates on historic lows and the ability to provide any fiscal stimulus heavily curtailed, the options available are limited. Nothing obvious in the way of a solution other than better global growth but what it means is that next time round it will be harder to address a global financial crisis. It is worth remembering that at such times the USD and Gold are the natural havens for flight capital.
The news that the USA has placed sanctions on four Chinese tanker firms including the well known large company Cosco has shocked an already nervous oil market in the wake of the drone attacks on the oil supply pipeline in Saudi Arabia. Quite why traders should be surprised given that the USA announced that they would not tolerate shipping companies carrying Iranian oil back in May is another matter, but that is down to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the wider trade war between the USA and China. Oil WTI is little changed at $56 which is where it was pre the drone attacks.
Tipping Etiquette for the new(ish) Gig Economy
Point of Sale credit and debit card machines increasingly give diners options ranging from No Tip to 10/15/20 or Other %. That is straightforward and avoids awkwardness unless possibly when it comes to hitting the No Tip option. These days Deliveroo workers for example depend on tips and it is not uncommon to ride the lift down with disgruntled Deliveroo workers who have received a grunt and muttered thanks but no tip from less generous neighbours in our building. These days it’s got complicated again and especially due to people carrying less or no cash. What’s the answer? Well needless to say when travelling, the SGM-FX Prepaid Currency Card allows tips and also allows users to draw cash from ATMs at no cost: problem solved!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Onto June A slew of strong US economic data over recent weeks had boosted expectations for how the culmination of the Fed’s two-day meeting would be presented to the public last night. The story goes back further. The narrative dominant in late-2023 of a US economy in need of restrictive monetary policy was unavoidable. The […]
Germany and the EU The Germany Supply Chain Act came into force in 2023 as a result of Germans wanting to do something good for employees in other countries in particular with respect to human rights and environmental issues. So far so good. But a combination of cost and bureaucracy overlaid with the difficulty of […]
Emergency Stop In the early hours of trading on Monday morning, sudden and significant buying pressure within USDJPY has markets wondering: is this the signal that local authorities are taking another stab at active market intervention? In a critical week for FX, with central bank decisions and a slew of top-level economic data from across […]