by Mark Gilbert | Feb 26, 2017 | Opinion
Greece is caught in a spat between its major creditors. On one side is the International Monetary Fund, which says “significant debt relief” is needed. On the other are the euro-zone institutions, insisting on a primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of...
by Mark Gilbert | Jan 21, 2017 | Opinion
In February 2015, economists at HSBC Holdings in London coined the terms “hard” and “soft” Brexit. The latter would maintain “much of the status quo” if the U.K. voted to quit the European Union; the former entailed “huge risk...
by Mark Gilbert | Dec 15, 2016 | Opinion
Don’t tell Tiny Tim, but even if Brexit hasn’t put a damper on Christmas 2016, next year might be a different story. Come January, Britons will pay 5 percent more for their Lego sets, as the Danish company raises prices in response to the pound’s...
by Mark Gilbert | Sep 17, 2016 | Opinion
The U.K. government had to perform two distinct calculations in deciding to proceed with building a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, one political and one economic. The political reckoning was always going to argue strongly against abandoning the project. The...