It is a curious development in professional auditing circles that being sued for negligence has almost been overtaken in the “nightmare-stakes” by the threat of a regulatory mauling. Widely broadcast findings that an auditor’s work has been negligent lead to severe reputational attrition and massive fines – and unlike judgments in case law, none […]

THOUGHTS ON “LEGAL TENDER” AND GAMES OF PRETENCE Economic Perspectives 54 – April 2019 Few people understand the purpose of so-called “legal tender”. It is widely believed that the government’s legal tender laws protect citizens’ money by formally designating it as the official medium for the settlement of transactions. The Latin root is “tendere”, to […]

“GOING POSTAL” 25-2-19         [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES no. 50: EMILE WOOLF] ECONOMIC DISTORTION, COURTESY OF YOUR CENTRAL BANK Governments rarely set out to take responsibility for every single issue, but that usually happens anyway. As a result there is a growing expectation by citizens that, whatever the problem, it is the government’s job to sort it out […]

Economic Perspectives 48 GOING POSTAL – 28 JANUARY 2019 How to unravel economic complexity – the simple citizen’s guide Here’s a clue: if there are things that you, as a rational citizen, would never choose to do, it’s almost certain that government should stay clear of them too. But governments rarely act rationally, and the […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 39 REAPING THE WHIRLWIND My wife and I have just returned from a couple of weeks in the USA. Among many sources of stimulation, debate between friends and family threw up a number of key issues of economic interest – two in particular stand out, and they are closely related: (i) Whether […]

GOING POSTAL 20/8/18 [Part 1 of “This time it will be different” appeared as Going Postal last week.] PART 2 THE SCOURGE OF CREDIT EXPANSION – THE SYSTEM’S DEMISE COULD BE SOONER THAN YOU THINK The monetary conjuring trick employed after the last crisis, described in Part 1, required central banks to purchase government bonds […]

1 – THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT – Yes, far worse! [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 35] The last crash 2007/2008 Before the last financial crisis in 2007/2008 sub-prime mortgages were all the rage. The idea was that if mortgage lenders put a pot-pourri of mortgages in a parcel, the risks attaching to mortgages at the […]

Having seen the nature and causes of unsound money, what can we say about sound money? It is money that can be trusted, by anyone and everyone who uses it. Trusted to do what? Trusted to retain its purchasing power. what matters is what money can buy After all, what matters is what money can […]

Let’s look more closely at the role of interest rates Money is one of many forms in which wealth may be held, but money and wealth are not synonymous. Wealth is the accumulation of savings. Savings, in a business, are what is left after meeting all its direct and indirect costs, depreciation, distributions to the […]

UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS IN ONE HOUR 1 – Overview Looking about us, what we see is the passing show. Despite every appearance of reality, it is ephemeral, ever-changing. It is Prospero’s “insubstantial pageant”. What we see is a “result” of something else, always a manifestation rather than a “cause”. It is difficult to discern the real […]