The downgrading of the United States: the way forward Fitch downgrades the US debt rating. Even though specialized media mentioned it, the downgrading of the rating of the United States by Fitch has not had even close to the downgrading by Standard & Poor’s in 2011. Fitch Ratings downgraded its…

How long will it take for bank regulators to recognize that bank mergers are a path to destruction of business, employment, competition and value? Where does the legitimacy of their actions rest? The world of banking bail out is gone. As the banking world, in a self-inflicted way, went…

What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations, wrote Chinese General Sun Tzu in the 5th century BC. I remember my father-in-law, who was a senior officer in the Belgian Army, talking about the reasons why World War II emerged: the European countries thought they could stop the…

This year will be a tougher year for the global economy than 2022. For most of the world economy, this is going to be a tough year, tougher than the year we leave behind because the three big economies — US, EU, China — are all slowing down simultaneously. We…

Another member of the opaque crypto sphere investigated. It is always dangerous to try to draw a parallel between competitors. However, the lack of transparency of Binance is similar to FTX. It does not publish financial statements. A Reuters analysis of Binance’s corporate filings shows that the core of the…

Coming back from the IMF meetings in Washington, I was impressed to see how deep the consensus was on the necessity to find ways to counteract the largest risk: an emerging market financial crisis that will this time go beyond the low-income countries and reach emerging markets who had…

On November 11, 1947, almost thirty years after the World War I armistice, at the British Parliament pronounced those words: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have…

Listening and reading the media as they cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II, I noticed a profound misunderstanding of what a constitutional monarchy represents, how diverse it is, and how it compares to a republic. Being a citizen of the Kingdom of Belgium I have had many opportunities to…

I am terrified to see how Democrats are assaulting President Joe Biden and starting to speculate on the Presidential election while ignoring the fundamental challenges of the midterm elections. Yet, the orchestrated campaign against the reelection in three years of President Biden makes absolutely no sense if the Democrats want…