Grant Williams's Blog

There are intriguing parallel between the strategies employed by players and coaches to get around the NFL rulebook and the kick-the-can antics of Eurozone politicians.

Yes, I understand that, in nominal terms, money printing is good for stocks 'just because'; but sooner or later, reality is going to reassert itself (painfully, I might add).

The title of this edition of Things That Make You Go Hmmm..., however, comes from a scene in Jaws 2 that for some strange reason popped into my head during my recent travels. Fortunately, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, I was able to find the scene, watch it in its entirety, and transcribe the dialogue for the front cover.

The quote in question was uttered by the villain of the piece, Auric Goldfinger, in response to Connery's Bond, who, as he lay watching a laser beam slowly cut through a solid gold table toward his groin, asked what, under the circumstances, was a perfectly reasonable question: 'Do you expect me to talk?'

Nobody ever really wins at Thumb Wars, which makes the whole thing rather pointless; and, as it turns out, the same can be said about the subject of today’s discussion — Currency Wars — which seem to be erupting across the globe...

For some reason, talking about politics is a hugely divisive thing to do. People extrapolate what they want from your opinion, stick a nice, tidy label on you, and file you under the letter 'F' for either 'Friend' or 'Foe'. Once declared, your politics define you, and that is a great shame.

Last year at this time, I wrote a year-in-review piece for 2012, which, from a retrospective angle, looked back at the events that I foresaw happening over the last twelve months (stay with me here). How did I do? Well, frankly, appallingly.

A decade that began with Britain's recognition of Taiwan and troops from the North Korean Army crossing the 38th Parallel on their way to Seoul in June of 1950, and ended with the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, by which twelve countries including the USA and the USSR (remember them?)...

Nestled in the foothills of the French Pyrenees lies a tiny town that boasts a mere 176 inhabitants. The town centre consists of just two narrow streets, there is little agriculture in the surrounding area, wild orchids grow in abundance, and the air is as fresh and clean as you will find anywhere on earth.

Conspiracy theories regarding price manipulation have polarized some of the finest minds in finance for many years, and many commentators for whom I have the utmost respect feel they are all utter nonsense. Personally, I believe there is no smoke without fire, and I always apply the two criteria of motive and means to any suspected conspiracy.