For Europe, 2020 was supposed to be a fiscal awakening, with the pandemic putting paid to the issues that created the first Euro crisis; the Union’s lack of fiscal integration, its inflexibility on budget rules and inability to handle payment crises. The crisis affected the whole continent, threatening to burden health services and leave swathes…
Bigger is better in trading blocs. And last Sunday, 15 East Asian countries signed an historic accord to form the world’s largest trading bloc, containing a third of the world’s population and accounting for around 30% of global GDP. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is bringing together the ten ASEAN members with their Northern…
The November rally in stock markets finally petered out this week as it felt as if ‘November finally got the memo about 2020’. This was despite further positive vaccine news that bolstered optimism for next year. On Monday, US firm Moderna announced that phase 3 test results of its messenger RNA based vaccine had a…