Englund

  €726,000 (typ 8 mkr) in 2024, according to the FT’s calculations https://www.ft.com/content/c7cd22f0-efe5-40de-a448-fa9075926a6a

If a durable change in the relationship between Japanese and foreign interest rates prompts portfolio reallocations by Japanese investors, brace for a major rebalancing of the global financial system. The policy rate, at 0.75%, remains negative in inflation-adjusted terms (prices are rising around 3% annually), but less deeply negative than before.  Meanwhile, the world’s other major central banks—and especially the U.S. Federal Reserve—are cutting their policy rates, narrowing the gap with Japan. Such movements tend to trigger large and unpredictable shifts in Japanese overseas investment.   This isn’t a small matter. Japan’s total foreign portfolio investment amounted to around $4.5 trillion at the end of 2024.  Some portion of this is the so-called carry trade—leveraged, short-term, highly mobile Japanese investments abroad seeking to profit from low domestic rates.  That’s estimated at anywhere between $160 billion and $500 billion and has been sufficient in...

Europe must complete its common institutions. That project requires a distinctly European form of nationalism. For all its flaws, Trump’s critique points to a fundamental truth: a viable state requires a political community.  Without a collective “we,” taxation feels like extortion, laws are perceived as an imposition by outsiders, and military service becomes difficult to justify. Why contribute, comply, or sacrifice if the beneficiaries are not “us”? As Benedict Anderson famously argued, https://www.versobooks.com/products/1126-imagined-communities nation-states are socially constructed “imagined communities”: large enough that most members will never meet, yet real enough to sustain mutual obligations.  This sense of “us” is not a rhetorical flourish; it is the intangible social scaffolding that supports collective action. Any political project – liberal or illiberal, democratic or authoritarian – depends on it. Ricardo Hausmann Project Syndicate Dec 31, 2025 https://www.pr...

US President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategyd  argument rests on a fundamental misreading of Europe’s current predicament.  While the European Union does face an existential threat, it has little to do with immigration or cultural politics. The real threat facing Europe lies in its own economic and technological backwardness. Whether the US or China currently leads the industries of the future remains open to debate. Beyond that, innovation is concentrated in countries like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Israel. As Ernest Hemingway famously observed, bankruptcy happens “gradually and then suddenly.”  So far, Europe’s technological decline has been gradual. But if it fails to confront its structural weaknesses, today’s slow erosion could give way to a sudden and irreversible loss of economic relevance. Nouriel Roubini Project Syndicate Dec 30, 2025 https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/europe-most-serious-problem-not-immigration-but-technologic...

On Jan 1, Bulgaria became the 21st member of the euro.  Its government has just fallen, there are public protests over corruption, and ordinary Bulgarians, who inevitably were not asked for their views in a referendum, appear very lukewarm about the whole project.  Bulgaria ranks among the poorest countries in the EU, with a GDP per capita of $17,600  compared to $56,000 in Germany and $46,000 in France in 2024.  Still, never mind. The country will be hustled into a monetary union with Germany and France all the same. After all, what could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot, as it happens. On almost any criterion you might care to choose, it would be hard to come up with a much worse candidate for a monetary union with Germany or the Netherlands. Matthew Lynn Telegraph 1 January 2026 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/01/brussels-is-welcoming-the-eus-next-crisis-with-open-arms/

I is James Stavridis a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a retired US Navy admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group. Three stood out.  The first is 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How it Shattered a Nation by New York Times business columnist and Squawk Box host Andrew Ross Sorkin.  Much as in his previous book — Too Big To Fail, a gripping description of the global recession of 2008-2009 — it is a character-driven, front-row seat to an epic economic and geopolitical crisis, and a warning of what might be ahead. In the roaring 1920s, people could easily buy stocks on margin and “the market only went up.” The streets of New York were full of newly minted millionaires flaunting their wealth. The nation had shaken off the effects of a global pandemic and was full of “animal spirits” and financial exuberance. A stock market at record highs? Post-pandemic animal spirits? Inclination to tariffs a...

  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization embodies the slippery concept of what constitutes “the West.”Photographer: Haiyun Jiang/AFP/Getty Images ”Väst” är en klubb på life support, spetsat på lansen av Donald Trumps hobbska syn på världen. Georgios Varouxakis, historiker vid Queen Mary University i London publicerade i juli Väst: En idés historia. Det är en bok som gör ett värdefullt – det vill säga dokumentbaserat och icke-ideologiskt – jobb med att avfärda några av de vanligaste teorierna om när och hur denna enhet uppstod. Idén om Väst som en politisk identitet uppstod först runt tiden för det grekiska frihetskriget 1821-1829, som ett sätt att beskriva ett kollektivt försvar mot det osmanska riket och senare mot Rysslands absolutism. Väst ses som en fundamentalt liberaldemokratisk idé som har bestått trots dess staters fel och missgärningar. Dess förlust eller ersättning med extrem nationalism skulle kunna hota sekulariseringens och toleransens överlevnad.  Marc Champion B...

The US dollar is heading for its steepest annual drop since 2017, with Wall Street banks predicting further weakness next year as the Federal Reserve presses ahead with interest rate cuts. The greenback has slumped 9.6 per cent against a basket of major currencies this year, after US President Donald Trump’s trade war sparked fears for the world’s biggest economy and cast doubt over the dollar’s traditional status as a haven for investors. https://www.ft.com/content/1712a946-5861-444e-9740-d488c865c5cf Kronan stärktes under året som gick med 20,6 procent mot dollarn.  Det var den avgjort starkaste utvecklingen bland de 16 valutor som handlas mest gentemot USA-valutan.  Den största delen av kronans rörelse mot dollarn skedde under årets första månader. Vid årsskiftet var kursen 11,06 kronor och i mitten av april drygt 9,50.  Med några timmar kvar av 2025 års handel kostade en dollar 9,18 kronor. Viktor Munkhammar DI  30 december 2025, 14:57 https://www.di.se/nyheter/v...

The US dollar's preeminence in the world economy is being questioned due to President Donald Trump's actions in international relations. The administration's policies, including trade barriers and financial interventions, may undermine the dollar's dominance, and the lack of plausible alternative currencies may not be enough to defend it. The world economy has organized itself around the dollar for decades and, contrary to numerous failed predictions, this isn’t about to change. Trump’s all-fronts assault on business as usual in international relations has cast things in a different light. Sometimes, the unthinkable happens. Two books published this year delve into the history of the dominant dollar: Our Dollar, Your Problem by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University,  https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300275315/our-dollar-your-problem/ and King Dollar by Paul Blustein, https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270969/king-dollar/ a journalist who’s spent many years coverin...

Borttaget från Youtube   Nu återuppstått i jag tror olika skepnader. Kanske ryska troll baserade i Turkiet. Döm själv. ⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fan-made channel and is not affiliated with Yanis Varoufakis or any political party, organization, or institution he is associated with. The videos are inspired by Varoufakis’s public statements, ideas, and analyses for educational and informational purposes only. A synthesized voice is used and does not belong to Yanis Varoufakis. Visual lip-syncing and dubbed narration are included solely to enhance clarity, create a cinematic experience, and make the content more engaging. Our aim is to present Yanis Varoufakis’s economic thinking and geopolitical interpretations in a format that is both clear and engaging for a wider global audience. We work to ensure that viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing can follow each episode through accurate and carefully prepared transcriptions. Every analysis is shared with respect for Varoufakis’s wor...

Econ Empires Youtube 27 December 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8UPW5emDB8 Valutaunionens rötter, kommunismens fall för 20 år sedan kom att bli eurons definitiva startskott Den franske presidenten Mitterrand ställde då ett ultimatum: för att acceptera ett tyskt enande var landet tvunget att ge upp sin D-mark och gå med på ett stärkt EU-samarbete. Tyskland ville egentligen inte ha en gemensam valuta, men accepterade samarbetet på villkor att det inte fick drag av en traditionell valutaunion. Peter Wolodarski, Signerat DN 21 augusti 2011 In Strasbourg on Dec. 9, 1989, after the Berlin Wall fell, Germany agreed to monetary union in order to get President Mitterand to agree to German reunification "The 50 Days That Changed Europe" explains how the EU grew from a six-nation trade alliance to a 27-country behemoth with its own currency.  Wall Street Journal 23 Sept 2011 https://www.nejtillemu.com/tyskdebatt.htm#19891209

The Cook Islands—population 15,000—are being courted by  U.S.-China. David Copley, a former U.S. Navy officer who is now Trump’s mineral czar, made a personal trip to Rarotonga, the most populous of the Cook Islands. The Republic of Nauru, .nu,  with one of the world’s smallest economies, has signed its own deal with the Metals Company. Kiribati, another island nation, has said it is exploring an offshore mining partnership with China. Named after English explorer James Cook, who visited in the 1770s, the Cooks include 15 islands across an area roughly the size of Saudi Arabia. Wall Street Journal 26 December 2025 https://www.wsj.com/world/a-tiny-pacific-paradise-is-gaming-the-u-s-china-rivalry-over-minerals-dccf5f1e Cooköarna - engelska: Cook Islands  Den första europeiska upptäckten skedde genom den spanske upptäckresaren Álvaro de Mendaña som siktade en av öarna - Pukapuka 1595.  Efter det finns inga tecken på europeisk närvaro på närmare 150 år innan kapten James...

inleds med en sammanfattning av de händelser som vi tror är betydelsefulla. Därefter följer en genomgång av de viktigaste politiska och ekonomiska händelserna, månad för månad. https://www.europaportalen.se/2025/12/2025-ars-viktigaste-handelser-europa-attackeras-fran-ost-och-vast