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Think of stagflation as a series of increasingly expensive bottlenecks. Think of Schiphol Amsterdam Airport where there are not enough security guards and luggage porters so everyone gets stuck. Or the enormous lack of newspaper deliverers and cleaners, who can earn more elsewhere. Or to the increasingly expensive contractor, who can only start next year. … Read more

We are in a phase of capitulation. That means you do something that you usually don’t want to do and that often turns out wrong: you are or you feel compelled to do it. All kinds of parties are now capitulating, for different reasons. From central bankers, who now want to raise interest rates considerably, … Read more

In many ways, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a game changer. For starters, the postwar peace in Europe has come to an end. The world order suddenly looks different: Germany, which had been aloof from military conflicts since 1945, is now supplying weapons directly to Ukraine and is also going to invest 100 billion euros … Read more

It is no longer news that January brought a cold wind over markets. One that came from the Federal Reserve, which decided to let the wind blow from a different angle. No more endless money creation, the tap in the US is closing even faster than first announced. Moreover, the price of money could also … Read more

How do we look back on the financial markets of the past year? Just like in 2020, bond markets ended the year in negative territory. Incidentally, this was not accompanied by significant interest rate hikes. But with the high interest rate sensitivity of most bond markets, it takes very little to get this asset class … Read more

Finally, after nearly a year of excruciatingly soaring inflation rates, Fed Chairman Powell threw in the towel. The ‘temporary’ aspect of inflation was the confusing issue and probably not entirely true. Also the labour market had become so much tighter that continuous liquidity support for financial markets had to be phased out more rapidly. Officially … Read more

Financial markets have long remained in denial, but now the diagnosis of inflation is becoming more widely shared. As to how this inflammation of our money could arise, I have devoted enough newsletters. But what could be the consequences and how do we fight this infection? Will we soon be able to get a free … Read more

Everything is temporary, but sometimes temporality lasts a little longer. And if ‘everything’ means less pleasant things, such as stalled production and inflation, it starts to gnaw. “No, sorry, we did not see it coming,” Fed Chairman Powell said last week, “it was not in our models.” We have seen many forms of temporary scarcity … Read more

This catch phrase is central in a global debate, but even relevant in the formation of a new government in our own country. Will this lead to a political and financial turnaround that so many have written about in recent years? This call to curb the market, which was leading, among other things, to an … Read more

We have now reached the final rounds of the interest rate competition. The heat is on, it gets exciting, because who will be the first to admit that the inflationary pressure is getting too much for him or her? Who blinks first? In the group matches there were already countries that dropped out and loved … Read more