Political risk is now the new climate change, a catch-all narrative for the future which enables the bourgeoisie to enjoy one of our favourite pastimes: showing off by scaring everybody at dinner parties. We all use the key words with abandon: “migration; nutters; Trump; Brexit: twitter; Boris; Corbyn; Putin; hollowed out middle class; etc.” How […]
The Russian economy today bears little resemblance to that of the late Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev’s dreams of perestroika, of transforming the creaking command economy by adopting the advances of automation and the information revolution, did not come to pass. After a lost decade of graft and economic mismanagement under Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin’s rise […]
This week the Scottish National Party had to put aside campaigning and its tireless efforts to tighten its grip on the sprawling Scottish state. A cock-up some were comparing with the huge overrun on the cost of the Scottish Parliament has left thousands of Scottish farming families in pain and distress. Facing low prices for […]
The Eastern conflict has forced Ukraine to fundamentally redesign its energy policy. Whereas once, it could rely on a near endless stream of cheap Russian gas, tightening sanctions and a steepening political cost have forced it to think again. Ukraine, newly cynical from 2014’s “Revolution of Dignity,” has learned the lessons of Gazprom’s previous supply […]
Back in 2013 a German discovered that there was something dodgy with Volkswagen’s vehicle emission claims. Quite right, I hear you say, that the scandal should be uncovered by a German. Sadly it was uncovered by John German, a self-confessed ‘simple engineer from Michigan,’ working for the San Francisco-based International Council for Clean Transport (ICCT). […]
The military might of the Soviet Union once dominated the Eurasian continent. While weapons exports remain a powerful tool of Russian policy, in Europe, energy is now king. With the lowest gas production costs in the world, Russia has a strong policy card to play with its natural resources. However, this does not give Russia […]
It’s a sorry state of affairs when American politicians have less faith in the power of the market to tackle a problem than the Chinese Communist Party. But incredibly, that is where we find ourselves. Next year China will unveil the largest carbon market in the world, bringing in a cap and trade system for […]
It is said that when Metternich, sometime Austrian Foreign Minister, heard of the death of his French counterpart, Talleyrand, he opined, ‘I wonder what he meant by that?’ The quote passed through my mind when I learned of the death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A central figure in so many of the […]
As anyone with their eye on global markets will have noticed, the oil price has been plummeting. In the last few years it has dropped from $110 to less than $30 per barrel. Admittedly, the price has just risen to $35 following plans by Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze output, but that would still have […]
Israel is on the cusp of moving forward on its next stage of the development of its natural gas resources deep beneath the seabed in the eastern Mediterranean. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, is due to testify before the Israeli Supreme Court on why he is pushing through a so-called “gas framework” against political and […]
When Saudi Arabia led an OPEC decision to end a restraint put on oil production in November 2014, it marked the beginning of a new era in oil economics. It has given us a tumbling oil price, prompted huge losses and job cuts at oil firms like BP and might yet give us economic and […]
Historically falling oil prices were a boost to the economy. Every penny reduction in gasoline prices means a $1 billion boost to the economy. Today, the narrative is very different. Because the US is a mobile society, some segments are beneficiaries. Motorists get a big break, airline profits improve, sales of SUVs and trucks are […]
Saudi Arabia’s policy of low oil prices is, as I have argued for a while now, primarily geopolitical in its aims of countering Iran and Russia. The Saudi elite is obsessed with denying Iran the leadership of the Muslim world, and the US rapprochement with Tehran is deepening their sense of encirclement. Russia, by shoring […]
One of America’s biggest solar companies, SolarCity announced last week that it would slash at least 550 jobs within Nevada, following its December decision to suspend solar-panel sales and installations within the state. The company blames recent policy changes approved by the state’s public-utility commission. But the facts validate Nevada’s controversial decision, also calling into […]
What was LBC thinking giving Alex Salmond his own radio show? The London-based talk-radio station is allowing the former SNP leader the run of the airwaves every Wednesday, shepherded by presenter Iain Dale. The answer to that question (what was LBC thinking?) is, of course, clever old LBC, which is trying to expand its reach […]
A recently published report by Carlo Stagnaro at the Institute of Economic Affairs laments the return of policymakers to the interventionist policies which once strangled the electricity and energy industries. Despite the successes of reforms introduced in 1990 that endured till 2010, the author highlights the U-turn taken by the UK and the EU in […]
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