December 2019 – Hopes of a trade agreement and greater monetary liquidity have triggered a rise in equity markets and a certain amount of profit-taking in government bond markets. Corporate results for the third quarter were satisfactory overall. 

December 2019 – Any initial outlook for the impending 2020 economic year must remain provisional for the time being, as a great deal will depend on the details of the planned trade agreement between the US and China, which is not yet in the bag. The financial markets are optimistic that trade tariffs will be reversed, but perhaps it will just be a case of no additional tariffs being imposed. 

January 2019 - The turbulent performance of Bitcoin over the last year has brought this cryptocurrency to the attention of the wider public. But this currency has actually been around for almost ten years, and an estimated 1,600 other alternative currencies have also sprung up in the meantime. The question is often asked whether these constructs – which only exist in the form of digital code – can really be considered currencies at all in a way that bears comparison with the dollar, euro or yen. We will return to this question later in this article. First of all it is worth establishing what actually lies behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether and Ripple.