Cryptocurrencies are drawing more attention – especially from high-profile techies like Elon Musk – than in previous years. The most recent is Tesla’s $1.5bn bet on Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency its CEO (Musk) once likened to fiat money (value is largely based on the public’s faith in the currency’s issuer, usually a sovereign state or central…
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The corruption perception index reading for 2020 was recently published, revealing deteriorating corruption levels in a few high-scoring countries. The recent election meltdown in the United States, as well as alleged conflict of interest and abuse of office, contributed to the continued downtrend of the country’s score. This underscores the fact that no country is…
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The year 2021 has gotten off to a bitter-sweet start on the global front. The de-escalation of the Gulf-Qatar tensions, the surge in Chinese demand, and the upbeat risk-sentiment that have supported rallies in emerging markets and commodities markets, have created a semblance of a return to stability. On the flip side, the adverse realities…
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By November 3, the United States of America (USA) will be making a choice between a Trump or Biden presidency. Increased uncertainty on the outcome of the elections drove jitters on major US equity indexes last week, as the markets priced in the possibility of an election contest given the increased adoption of mail-voting as…
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As the media evidence of the murder of a young man got into public space, nation-wide protests erupted, clamouring for the end to police brutality especially by a section of the police force, known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The protests became stronger by the day, as online movements metamorphosed into physical demonstrations, blockage…
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The COVID-19 pandemic that has persisted through the year, has raised the need to protect people, stabilize demand and stimulate recovery. The provision of emergency support has brought additional expenditure obligations, including emergency healthcare services, stimulus packages, payroll supports and rise in unemployment benefits. While advanced economies had automatic stabilizers to cushion the effect of…
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As the world copes with the health implications of COVID-19, the turnout of events has resulted into severe implications for the fiscal positions of various emerging and frontier economies. While dollar inflows from commodity exports and remittances have collapsed, the softening of local currencies have raised levels of indebtedness. Thus, emergency financing flows from International…
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The year of the metal rat (i.e. 2020) is clearly not the year for the Nigerian consumer. A cross-current of declining incomes and rising prices implies that there is no robust consumer out there. Lending credence to this fact is the pessimistic response of the Q2’20 Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) which was attributed largely to…
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With the US Federal Reserve Bank poised to allow inflation moderately above 2%, interest rates in the US could remain low for as long as necessary to enable other economic areas in the US economy, such as the labour market, catch up. This decision will determine the price of borrowing and savings deposit rates, not…
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The use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic progress has been under fire by welfare economists in recent years as they postulate that GDP figures do not capture the adverse environmental effects of economic processes. Economic progress can be linked to the people’s prosperity and happiness and citizens of countries that…
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