Pivotfarm's blog

Apparently, figures have just been released showing that 591 million Chinese are now on-line. That’s an increase of+10% on last year’s figure. So, the Chinese are connected.

Sovereign debt is the bonds that are issued by national governments in foreign currencies with the intent to finance a country’s growth. The risk involved is determined by whether that country is a developed or a developing country, whether that country has a stable government or not and the sovereign-credit ratings that are attributed by agencies to that country’s economy.

The OECD has stated in a report commissioned by the G20 that there will be “global tax chaos” in the next few years due to falling tax revenues from multinational companies around the world.

Oh, please! What happened to the world that I and most people grew up in? The one where Russia was the enemy, the USA the good guys and never the twain shall meet in true Rudyard-Kipling fashion.

So, when it boils down to it what does it take to become a 1-percenter in the US? You know, one of the elite, the people with power.

For once it might seem just a little better if you have greying temples and are a bit hard of hearing these days rather than young and boisterous, raring to go and hit the career ladder, thinking that you’re going to get to the top in one go.

As the trial of Fabulous Fab gets under way in Manhattan, there is someone that will be hearing the clinking of champagne glasses as they celebrate the doubling in profits of the rogue ( well, we love a scapegoat in the story, even though we all know it can’t be true) trader’s former employer, Goldman Sachs.

Fancy making some easy money? Just go in for the ‘Blueprint for Britain’ competition that is being staged by The Institute for Economic Affairs which is asking participants to provide a 2, 000-word piece on how the UK would be able to leave the EU and get around problems such as fitting into the geopolitical landscape and still surviving but going it alone.

Former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre goes on trial this week, accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of willingly misleading investors while he was vice-president of the bank.

Call it what you will, a handshake or a parachute; the result is all the same. The rest of us just get elbow out of the way as we get pushed through the back door. The top executives leave by the front door and to boot they hop into a chauffeur-driven car (paid by the company, of course) as they drive off into the sunset. To parachute someone: send them elsewhere, relocate them, bundle them off, pack them off or dispatch.

Looks like everybody was in on the act with complying with the National Security Agency’s spying around the world according to secret files. The Guardian newspaper of the UK has just obtained secret fails from Edward Snowden detailing the full extent of the affair. The affair was revealed just about a month ago now, but it now seems that Prism had everybody doing their dirty work.

They can be handcuffed, they can be given coffins, they can be parachuted, they can be bungee’d, they can be life-jackets, they can be a hello and they can have their hands shaken. What are we talking about? Well, all of these things seem to have one thing in common, they are golden!

It looks as if China’s days of double-digit economic growth are well and truly over (at least, for the moment). Data that will be released next week (second quarter figures) will show a quarter-on-quarter slowdown that is setting in now for China’s gross domestic product. The figures will be issued on Monda

One minute we hear that Quantitative Easing is going completely, then it’s going a bit and withdrawing in side-steps and little paces and then it’s going to carry on. Where do we stand?

It has all gone belly up if we look at the EU and we are honest. Yes, they might be trying to paper of the cracks and yes they might be shoving some super strong glue in their to stop everyone pulling in different directions, but if they are really truthful about it, the EU28 (now that Croatia has become a member since July 1st 2013)