The Russians have now said that if other countries agree to join them, Russia will be willing to re-open negotiations with OPEC. In reply-although it was definitively not a reply- the Saudis have said that they have not received any such overtures. It is in the rest of the world’s interests for OPEC+ to hammer out an agreement and an orderly approach to both supply and pricing not only for global economies to be able to plan how best to recover from the Covid-19 hit, but also to calm the as ever febrile economic and political atmosphere of the Middle East.
‘I was denounced as somebody that wanted to spend more money than we could possibly afford… I didn’t think that it would take only three months for me to be proved absolutely right by the amount of money that government is now prepared to put in.’
It’s not often that SGM-FX would choose to quote Jeremy Corbyn verbatim (or any other politician for that matter) but to confuse the Covid-19 economic life support mechanism with the management of the economy in normal times betrays a startling lack of a basic grasp of economics. It was JC’s final appearance on the big pitch of the House of Commons as Leader of the Opposition and his final opportunity to be statesmanlike and leave an impression that he would like to be remembered for. However when confronted with such an open goal he somehow managed to backheel the ball the length of the pitch past his goalkeeper into his own net. Respect!
Today is Vincent’s birthday – his 167th in fact. When he died at the age of 37 he had completed approximately 900 pieces of work that he had either given away or mostly parlayed for food, absinthe and lodging( not necessarily in that order). There are probably 800 pieces left following natural events such as fires and less natural such as wars-especially WW2. Some of his works go for $100million+ but some of his drawings go for as little as $1million. Research shows that conservatively VVG’s portfolio today is worth more than $10 Billion. Now that puts most 37 year old master of the universe hedge fund managers in the shade. Here is Don McLean and the start of his 1971 song Vincent:
Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
US Tariffs on Chinese Imports Recently we wrote about how Mexico has become the Number One trade partner for the USA. It now transpires that Mexico may have had what is known as a little assist with their numbers: the statistics for the number of 20 foot shipping containers for the first three Quarters of […]
British Pound There really was something for everyone in Bank of England Governor Bailey’s comments yesterday. Firstly he said that the BoE was comfortable with the market’s view of the decline in UK interest rates -meaning one presumes both on extent and timing. Then he followed it up by saying that the UK labour market […]
Question Without wanting to sound alarmist the question is whether markets have factored in the geo political risks present due to the conflicts in Eastern Europe and the twin conflicts in the Middle East which are overlaid by the vast number of general elections scheduled for 2024. Maybe a better way to express the question is […]