Category: finance
There has been much talk in recent years concerning the perceived move towards a cashless society – an increasing tendency to remove physical cash from general circulation and replace it with more modern, electronic forms of payment. This trend is now being increasingly shown through the difficulty in accessing cash together with a push from […]
Four major issues have put the central banks and tax administrations on alert: The decentralised character of blockchains: Most blockchains work thanks to a global network of stakeholders, including developers, miners, network nodes (with a copy of the registry) and blockchain users. In this context, it is difficult to address an individual entity to require […]
Have you noticed that all the efforts to regulate debt, derivatives, banks etc., made following the subprime crisis and meeting with varying degrees of success over the last ten years, are currently systematically undermined, including by the most serious players in the financial system? Here are some examples: On the public debt side, the United […]
Everyone agrees that, as announced by the International Energy Agency and OPEC, the next peak oil will be around 2025 (2030 for McKinsey), all sectors of production included, whether conventional or unconventional. After that, the supply will fall or collapse, according to forecasters, in spite of population growth (though we will see later that such […]
The future is this web made of all the threads humans weave between themselves and tomorrow. In the work GEAB teams have undertaken to understand the ‘web’ of the future, it is very important to identify the anticipations, projects and strategies that seem most relevant and effective. As you know, we are particularly keen to […]
For most of recorded history, gold has been the central sign and store of wealth and the more abundant silver has been the coinage of the people. This continued as the basis for sound money right up until the start of the 20th century. Gold bullion was held as bars by national banks and silver […]
A reminder that our recommendations are not for speculative purposes, therefore short-term, that they don’t aim to win more, but rather to lose less (even nothing) because in the case of a global systemic crisis like the one we are currently seeing, it’s the only rational objective. – Gold-Cryptor: patience! – Cryptocurrencies: a blank year […]
Have you noticed that all the efforts to regulate debt, derivatives, banks etc., made following the subprime crisis and meeting with varying degrees of success over the last ten years, are currently systematically undermined, including by the most serious players in the financial system? Here are some examples: On the public debt side, the United […]
In 2014, in the context of the partly energy-motivated Ukrainian crisis, European citizens became aware that 63 years after the signing of the ECSC Treaty (which, forming the basis of a coal and steel union, was the starting point for the European project) there was no Energy Union in Europe. The price of Russian gas, […]
Of course, there is this temptation of reverting to national or regional levels. However, there is also the Internet that connects the world lastingly. As a matter of fact globalized human society is trying to find solutions between maintaining open participation in the world, refocusing on regions of economic activity, reinventing national added value, and […]
The gradual disappearance of the previous world order’s straitjackets of stability (international organisations, treaties, alliances, various regulations…) is becoming alarming. Will this alarm act as a spur or will it turn out to be a bad counsellor? With the US-Russian exit from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), uncertainties surrounding US-China trade negotiations, the new […]
From a budgetary point of view, this compromise can only lead to a kind of status quo. The institutional architecture will stay close to that drafted by the 2011-2013 reforms that were based on unilateral recoveries in competitiveness. All transfers between states will be conditioned and will do nothing to help rebalance the eurozone. They will […]
Bullion and Jewellery For centuries, gold coins and jewellery have been used as small-scale private investments and, for many people today, they remain a good place to start. It must be noted that new purchases may be subject to VAT and both purchases will carry a considerable mark-up on the daily spot gold price. However, […]
What international role does gold play today and do recent market trends and new avenues for investment reaffirm the case for including gold in a balanced portfolio? With the holiday season over and stock markets around the world still reeling from a volatile end to 2018, many investors will be wondering where best to store […]
Happy New Black Clouds? The standard wishes for a Happy New Year seem almost out of place for many, given the black clouds[1] that seem to be gathering over the economy of the United State of America (US)[2] and the political threats to the economy existing in the European Union (EU).[3] The proximate causes are […]
As every year, LEAP is presenting a brief overview of the major ‘up and down’ trends[1] for the coming year. Besides the intellectual value of this contribution, which, of course, reflects many of the analyses of our researchers over the last few months, the aim is to provide a better understanding of the main issues […]
It is time to get rid of Western Sovereign Bonds Following the previous article on the topic of US Treasuries, it seems clear to our team that it is best to avoid US government bonds at the moment. In fact, there are some more reasons we recommend that you sell all your Western states bonds. […]
Gold: Stand still Great caution is required on all fronts now that Mr Trump has been elected as president. This principle will transversally mark every one of our recommendations. The gold price chart continues to tell us that we are correct – against all the intuitions from media experts – because, despite a brief rise […]