Politics

A foreign power using financial resources to create hedge-funds or other anonymous players who would gain leverage and trust and be viewed as just another hedge-fund with a funny name based out in the Cayman islands. People would be unaware of their true attentions and then on a certain day, they could act in co-ordination and flood the market with sell-orders.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

The value of the Rial dropped over 40% in two days. This was a clear currency collapse! It immediately injected hyperinflation into some areas of the Iranian economy as merchants who wanted to import suddenly had to double their local currency prices.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

Cyber-threat is the single most serious threat faced by the markets. The United States is very good at cyber warfare and counter warfare, but so are others. This is what we call 'asymmetric' warfare where adversaries have been able to level the playing field.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

When you have high levels of indebtedness and big deficits… if you simply impose fiscal austerity, you may not be able to achieve your targets because GDP will begin to contract and that will place much greater pressures on the fiscal side.

Fiscal austerity is the primary focus of policy in terms of response. That is both a misdiagnosis and compounds the problem.

The monetary union was flawed from inception. It included, under the framework of a single currency and a single monetary policy, countries that were likely to have very divergent outcomes and therefore would prefer to see different exchange rates, interest rates, and monetary policy responses.

The single greatest deficit that Europe faces today is not a budget, current-account or trade deficit… but a growth one. With stronger growth, a lot of these problems would be quite a bit easier to handle, if not to resolve.

As you move forward... there is the potential that the government can make a wrong-move but more importantly, now that the infrastructure has been built.. you have to question how long that growth model can last... Once you've built your motorways and railways, you're not going to build anymore!

Founder of Gavekal Research & Investment Strategist

The net result would certainly be worth the effort as now, more than ever, stakeholders in a fragile global economy from central banks to individual consumers need to know that what they are seeing is, in fact, the truth... the whole truth... and nothing but the truth.

We weren't involved in politics and had nothing to do with the government. But they took everything we had, our seven companies and the company plane. And it's a miracle they didn't kill us.

Around the world, government economists have a paradoxical role. On one hand they have a clear remit to accurately quantify their nation's economy and publish those figures in good faith... but conversely they can be prone (through pressure) to 'engineer' the figures in order to meet political objectives.

We estimate with the World Bank that US$20-40 billion each year is lost in developing countries through corruption. If you add to that $5 billion each year in stolen assets, it clearly shows that corruption is a serious obstacle to the achievement of the millennium development goals.

Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Corruption destroys societies, hinders development and undermines security. Note what happened in the Middle East and North Africa… corruption was one of the triggers of unrest in these countries. It appears that people are fed-up of corruption, they want change, and they want it now.

Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

For every example I could give you of regulations causing problems, I could give you two of regulations creating opportunities. I think this notion that regulation is causing problems is a real red herring.

Many governments, faced with a popular revolt, have chosen to martyr wealth without realising that it is the source of entrepreneurship, innovation and philanthropy in their economies.

What on earth they [referring to government] will do next…