PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
EXPLORING THE RATIONALE BEHIND GLASS-STEAGAL
Readers, who have basic knowledge of the U.S. financial system history, have certainly heard about the famous “Glass-Steagall” Act, which was one of the measures enacted in response to the financial collapse experienced during great Depression. Due to conflict of interest concerns and due to incompatibility of high risk inherent......
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE FIDUCIARY DUTIES: DECEPTIVE SIMPLICITY OF THE CONCEPT
Important disclaimer: the contents are for general informative purposes and do not constitute legal or other professional advice. Readers should seek legal or other professional advice in relation to any particular matters they may have. More than four centuries have passed since the first corporations ever were established and respectively......
CORPORATE CHRONICLE FROM DELAWARE
It is of no secret that Delaware is the go-to jurisdiction when it comes to registering business entities in the US. To understand the magnitude of Delaware’s popularity in this area consider two of the following facts: 1) the number of businesses registered in this state exceeds its overall population.......
APPLYING COACHING TOOLS TO PUBLIC POLICY OBJECTIVES
Industrial revolutions coupled with progression of capitalism and the competitive nature of human beings has led to a society that is more than ever obsessed with goal-setting, achievement and efficiency. No wonder a new profession known as coaching has emerged in the second half of the last century and has......
CSDR MANDATORY BUY-IN REGULATIONS: WHAT THE FALLINGS-OUT ARE ABOUT
Mandatory buy-ins are one of the most controversial rules in the EU Securities Market that are set to enter into force in the near future. Ever since their adoption, the regulators and the industry participants have been in strong disagreements about their effectiveness for ensuring the safety of securities settlement......
JUDGES, DISCRETION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Policymakers across the world have reached wide if not absolute consensus that courts are a key component to economic development. The OECD has long recognized the crucial role judicial systems play in determining economic performance by guaranteeing the security of property rights and the enforcement of contracts [1]. It occasionally......
COVID-19: Key measures taken by governments and central banks
Response to the coronavirus pandemic How Global Central Banks are Responding to COVID-19 When times get tough, central banks typically act as the first line of defense. However, modern economies are incredibly complex—and mishaps like the 2008 financial crisis have already pushed traditional policy tools to their limits. In response,......
Helicopter yes, or Helicopter no
Synopsis This is an unconventional monetary policy tool. It involves printing money and distributing it to the public. Imagine waking one morning to find extra cash in your account, a gift from your country’s central bank. But the concept of so-called helicopter money has been seriously debated by economists for......
Make your money work when you’re not: Creating an income-producing portfolio – CNN
If you have savings and investments to support you in retirement — or, before then, if you take an unpaid leave from your job — you can put that money to work in ways that help cover your short-term income needs without sacrificing your long-term security. How much income you......
At long last, Europe’s economy is starting to grow – The Economist
There is only one problem with the chatter about Europe’s “soft landing”: its economy never truly flew. While America’s growth has consistently amazed, Europe’s has been miserable. Exclude Ireland, where national statistics are distorted by multinational companies minimising their tax bills, and the eu’s gdp has risen by about 3%......
RBA Elected Not to Fine Tune Rates at Policy Meeting – WSJ
The Reserve Bank of Australia has warned that risks around the inflation outlook have risen, while uncertainty around the economy’s trajectory more broadly remains highly elevated. Minutes of the central bank’s May 6 to May 7 policy meeting showed that while it said there were increased risks that inflation will......
Class of 2024: How’s your job search going? – CNN
By many measures, the US economy is in great shape. There are millions of job openings and the unemployment rate is low. In fact it hasn’t been this low for such a long stretch of time in decades. If you just graduated college, there’s a good chance people are telling......
Artificial intelligence companies seek big profits from ‘small’ language models – The Financial Times
Artificial intelligence companies that have spent billions of dollars building so-called large language models to power generative AI products are now banking on a new way to drive revenues: small language models. Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Google have all recently released new AI models with fewer “parameters” — the number......
European Futures Decline as Focus Turns to Nvidia: Markets Wrap – Bloomberg
European stock futures declined along with Asian equities as investors shift their focus to Nvidia Corp. earnings out later in the week. Contracts for the Euro Stoxx 50 fell, while US futures were mixed. Futures on 10-year US Treasuries steadied while gold and copper changed hands near their all-time highs......
Slowing Inflation Primes G-7 Central Banks for June – Bloomberg
Inflation-related releases across the Group of Seven will prime central bankers for crucial June interest-rate decisions, just as they meet in Italy to discuss the state of the world economy. Days after US data revealed cooler-than-expected consumer-price growth, the UK, Canada and Japan will all publish numbers for April that......
Private Equity’s Massive UK Debt Binge Sparks Warnings of Danger – Bloomberg
For an idea of what private equity ownership can mean for ordinary people, UK supermarkets are a good place to start. Both Wm Morrison Supermarkets Ltd. and Asda have been laboring lately under giant debt burdens put on their shoulders by the financiers who bought them in 2021....
Can Nvidia be dethroned? Meet the startups vying for its crown – The Economist
“He who controls the gpus, controls the universe.” This spin on a famous line from “Dune”, a science-fiction classic, is commonly heard these days. Access to gpus, and in particular those made by Nvidia, the leading supplier, is vital for any company that wants to be taken seriously in artificial......
1 in 7 Gen Z credit card users are ‘maxed out’ – CNN
Roughly one in seven (15.3%) Gen Z credit card borrowers have maxed out their credit cards, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (The NY Fed defined Gen Z as borrowers born between 1995 and 2011, though others mark the cut off as 1996 or......
Week Ahead for FX, Bonds: PMI Surveys, Asia Central Banks in Focus – WSJ
Key data from the U.S., Europe and U.K. will share the stage with a raft of central bank decisions out of Asia-Pacific, as the timing of interest rate cuts stays front of mind for investors. Provisional purchasing managers’ surveys for the U.S., Europe and the U.K. will provide an important......
New Covid variants stoke fears of a summer surge in cases – The Financial Times
New Covid-19 variants are spreading around the world and stoking fears of a summer surge in cases in the US, in the latest sign of the infectious disease’s ability to mutate and potentially threaten collective immunity....
America Is Still Headed for a Soft Landing – WSJ
Is Goldilocks back already? Certainly the bears are nowhere to be seen.The cozy consensus that was prevalent late last year of a just-right pairing of slowing inflation and solid growth was upended by stubbornly high inflation readings for the first few months of 2024. So investors breathed a sigh of......
ECB Says Risks to Financial Stability Have Eased as Threat of Recession Recedes – WSJ
The eurozone’s financial system faces less acute threats to stability as it appears increasingly unlikely that the currency area’s economy will slide into a deep recession, the European Central Bank said. However, the central bank warned that geopolitical and policy uncertainty remains “elevated” and that the potential for economic or......
Fed Officials Suggest Interest Rates Should Stay High for Longer – Bloomberg
Several Federal Reserve officials said the central bank should keep borrowing costs high for longer as policymakers await more evidence inflation is easing, suggesting they’re not in a rush to cut interest rates....
High Interest Rates Are Hitting Poorer Americans the Hardest – The New York Times
High interest rates haven’t crashed the financial system, set off a wave of bankruptcies or caused the recession that many economists feared.But for millions of low- and moderate-income families, high rates are taking a toll. More Americans are falling behind on payments on credit card and auto loans, even as......
More than 6,000 UK bank branches now gone in nine years of ‘disastrous’ closures – The Guardian
The number of UK bank branches that have shut their doors for good over the last nine years will pass 6,000 on Friday, and by the end of the year the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies – including two in London – without a single branch....
Tesla must climb ‘Mount Everest’ to win shareholder vote, chair warns – The Financial Times
Tesla’s chair has said the carmaker needs to climb “Mount Everest” as it faces shareholder votes on relocating to Texas and Elon Musk’s $56bn pay deal, while dismissing criticism she is too close to the billionaire as “crap”....
Data centres have turned Big Tech into big spenders – The Financial Times
In their rush to fill rural America with vast, windowless data centres, US tech companies are taking a capital intensive bet on artificial intelligence. If that does not pay off, the rise in investment could drag on profit margins for years. Excitement around generative AI means post-pandemic cost-cutting programmes have......
Stock Indexes Book Records After Inflation Eases – WSJ
All three major U.S. stock indexes closed at records after the latest inflation report showed price pressures moderating, bucking a trend of hotter-than-expected readings. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite logged all-time highs on the same day for the first time since March 21. The S&P......
PODCAST: The Five-Minute Investor from Money Clinic: What’s a bull market?
Global stock markets are charging along breaking record after record — but what’s driving this ‘bull market’ and how much longer can it last? Plus, what could it mean for investors if a ‘bear market’ awakens from hibernation?...
What the AI Pessimists Are Missing
The current debate about generative AI focuses disproportionately on the disruption it might unleash. While it is true technological advances always disrupt legacy industries and existing systems and processes, one must not ignore the opportunities they can create or the risks they can mitigate....
The race for an AI-powered personal assistant
At Google’s Mountain View headquarters this week, a man clad in a rainbow-hued dressing gown emerged from a giant coffee cup to give a vibrant if somewhat surreal demonstration of the company’s latest achievements in generative AI....
The Dilemmas of the Dollar
The dollar’s strength, particularly against major Asian currencies, has triggered a wave of skittishness in financial markets. Can anything be done to stem the greenback’s rise, and even if something can be done, should it?...
PODCAST: At the Money: Hot & Cold Investments
What should you do when an investment suddenly becomes hot or cold? How should investors think about sectors that fall in and out of favor? Should you be looking at countries like India and Japan or technologies like AI? Jan van Eck, CEO of Van Eck Funds, which oversees $75......
The Best Ways to Ask ChatGPT Questions
Research reveals how to phrase questions to get the best responses. But that can lead to some unusual requests. Want to get the best answers out of an AI? It’s all in how you talk to it. Tell it, for instance, to pretend it is Albert Einstein. Or that somebody’s......
Seven Ways to Get Sustainability Incentives Right
Boards and CEOs are increasingly using financial incentives to hit corporate sustainability goals. BCG research shows that 47% of corporate directors say that sustainability should be “entirely” integrated in executive performance metrics and/or compensation. And another 40% say it should be “somewhat” integrated....
The Rise of the Finternet
Financial services must catch up with the advances made in communications since the advent of the internet and smartphones. That will require taking bold action to build a seamless, interconnected network that would give all individuals and businesses full control over their financial lives....
PODCAST: Gen Z Is Falling Deeper Into Debt
Americans in their early 20s are saddled with more credit-card debt than people their age in previous generations. Wall Street Journal personal-finance reporter Oyin Adedoyin joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss how they accumulated so much debt, and ways to pay it off....
Can Europe’s economy ever hope to rival the US again?
Claus Romanowsky reckons those who claim Europe’s economy is falling technologically behind are out of touch. The chatbot developed by his team at German engineering company Siemens will soon let factory workers anywhere talk to robots and machines without needing to know any code — potentially reaping massive gains in......
Effective Cost Management Can Fuel Growth
Organizations worldwide are contending with shifting markets, supply chains, and customer dynamics, as well as the push for continuous improvement. When they launch a business transformation to respond, improving cost management is invariably part of the process....
Central Banks in a Cashless World
With cashless transactions rapidly replacing physical cash, central banks have an opportunity to serve the public interest by providing or shaping the infrastructure on which digital-payment systems are built. But to do so effectively, they will have to abandon outdated assumptions and re-imagine their own roles....
PODCAST: Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas on the Global Outlook: Steady but Slow
The World Economic Outlook is more than projected growth rates. The research behind those projections tells the story of how 190 countries, slowly but steadily, found their way through the fog of the past few years to emerge a testament to the resilience of the global economy....
Consumers Know More About AI Than Business Leaders Think
It took Spotify some 150 days to garner a million users. Instagram, about 75 days. ChatGPT? Just five days. Artificial intelligence isn’t new, but broad public interest in it is, particularly as generative AI (GenAI) tools have been released over the past year. ChatGPT, for example, has become a household......
What’s Driving the Global Gold Rush?
A recent surge in the gold price is symptomatic of a changing world order and the onset of a new age of conflict and uncertainty. Governments and central banks have long viewed the precious metal as a potential source of monetary stability and economic security, and this time is no......
The lesson of Loki? Trade less
The pages of the Financial Times are not usually a place for legends about ancient gods, but perhaps I can be indulged in sharing one with a lesson to teach us all. More than a century ago, Odin, All-father, greatest of the Norse gods, went to his wayward fellow god......
PODCAST: Grocery Shopping No Longer Involves Just One Trip to the Supermarket
As food prices continue to rise, many consumers are dividing up their grocery shopping among numerous stores. Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolfe joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss how it helps them stay within their budget....
History Already Tells Us the Future of AI
David Ricardo, one of the founders of modern economics in the early 1800s, understood that machines are not necessarily good or bad. His insight that whether they destroy or create jobs all depends on how we deploy them, and on who makes those choices, could not be more relevant today....
Asia’s Growth and Inflation Outlook Improves, but Risks Remain
The outlook for Asia and the Pacific in 2024 has brightened: we now expect that the region’s economy will slow less than we previously projected as inflation pressures continue to dissipate. We have raised our regional growth forecast for this year to 4.5 percent, up 0.3 percentage point from six......
PODCAST: Global Financial Stability: Fragilities Along Disinflation’s Last Mile
As inflation slowly subsides and optimism pervades financial markets, the latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) warns of potential setbacks. Fabio Natalucci and Jason Wu head the GFSR team. In this podcast, they discuss risks associated with debt and the private credit market, struggling real estate sectors in China and......
AT1: Investors’ Risky Bets that Keep the Banks Running (by Hayk Khekoyan)
When you hear the word CoCo you probably think of a leather bag with the famous Chanel logo on it, or the 2017 critically acclaimed and commercially successful animated movie of the same name. What you probably do not think about is a complex financial instrument, created with the purpose......
Is Artificial Intelligence Going to Replace Us All? (by Hayk Khekoyan)
Nowadays it seems borderline impossible to spend even a few hours without coming across the subject of “Artificial Intelligence”. There is just way too much talk, hype, arguments, doomsday prophecies or bold optimistic statements on how this or that technological advancement or tool, or AI in general is going to......
Did the 2022 World Cup Really Cost More than All the Previous Ones Combined? (by Hayk Khekoyan)
As the World Cup final is played in Lusail, a city that did not even exist a few years ago, Qatar 2022 will go down in the history books for many reasons, not all of them exactly football‑related. Nothing in the world exists as a separate entity in a vacuum:......
The Growing Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Business (by Hayk Khekoyan)
These days it is borderline impossible to spend a day in the business world without hearing the phrase “emotional intelligence”, its abbreviation “EI” or the closely related term “EQ” (emotional quotient, similar to intelligence quotient colloquially known as IQ). While the concept of emotional intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout......
The Streaming Wars: Part 2 (by Hayk Khekoyan)
Last year I wrote about the so-called “Streaming Wars”. This term is used to describe the process of the rising number of streaming video on demand (VOD) services from all sorts of corporations trying to position themselves in an ever-growing and yet such a tight market. The world is a......
Working Less or Working Smarter and Better? (by Hayk Khekoyan)
Work less, earn more. That is the plan for most people. Barring the rare cases of people actually loving their work, for most of us a job is simply a means to survive. If you haven’t won the genetic lottery to be born into outrageous wealth, just staying alive requires......
To the Moon or to the Ground? The Jury is Still Out on Bitcoin (by Hayk Khekoyan)
Bitcoin is back. Back to inexplicably losing more than half of its value in six months, back to being one of the biggest controversies in the world, but definitely not back to its all-time highs of more than $60,000 achieved twice during 2021. “When you find yourself in a hole,......
How to Increase Savings in Armenia (by Alexandra Ouzounian from The Pingry School, New Jersey)
Financial literacy is broadly defined as an individual’s financial knowledge and ability to use financial tools to execute his or her financial goals. The people of Armenia demonstrate a level of financial literacy (Figure 1) and gross savings rate (Figure 2) that is lower than the average financial literacy of......
Personal data protection: EU perspective (by Diana Javadyan)
Nowadays, more than ever, data protection issues are actual and crucial in terms of both data protection standard setting and data protection standard implementation. Recent Fintech developments, e-communities, artificial intelligence application and other technological advancements throughout the world bring up the need of robust data protection framework and protected data......
The Streaming Wars that will Shape the Future of Entertainment (by Hayk Khekoyan)
When the CEOs of Netflix and Blockbuster met in the distant year 2000 to discuss a merger between the two, Netflix was a 3-year-old company valuing itself at a measly $50 mln compared to Blockbuster’s market capitalization of around $5 bln (Sloan, 2020). Perhaps, having taken note of the phrase......
Why You Should Consider Learning Cybersecurity (by Hayk Khekoyan)
3.12 million. This is the estimated number of cybersecurity specialists needed globally as cyberattacks around the world keep growing in both frequency and magnitude (Duffy, 2021). The last few months alone have seen some of the biggest security breaches in history, more on which later. The most important development in the......
Will Energy Ever Be the Same Again? (by Hayk Khekoyan)
As recently as the year 2013, the largest publicly traded corporation in the world was an oil company. Exxon Mobil had a market capitalization well north of $400 bln at the time, which was quite the feat considering there were no trillion-dollar companies in the world yet. Fast forward......
A Possible Future of Money (by Hayk Khekoyan)
If you have not spent the last few years in a cave or on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the words cryptocurrency or digital currency should sound familiar. I will not pretend to know or try to explain all the details of the technology behind Bitcoin,......
The Simple, Yet Quite Complex Global Issue (by Hayk Khekoyan)
For almost a week in the end of March one of the most important marine routes of the world was blocked by a giant vessel, approximately matching in size with New York’s famous Empire State Building. It took almost another week after the vessel was removed for the traffic jam......
The Consequences of the Mass Investment Platforms (by Hayk Khekoyan)
By January 11 not as many people had heard about the American company Gamestop as they have today. As of January 11 Gamestop cost around 1.5 billion USD and was a network of computer games and electronics’ stores situated in several states of the USA as well as in a......
Why We Need Governments (by Hayk Khekoyan)
The man regarded as the father of economics devoted a great deal of time and a big chunk of his work talking about how free markets produce the best outcomes for everyone involved. Adam Smith, in his book “The Wealth of Nations”, told us about the invisible hand that guides......