Markets in an Era of Clashing Superpowers
A world of falling cooperation and rising political polarization is a world of higher interest rates where valuations matter again.
Taking Cover: The New York Stock Exchange on a rainy day in October.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Are we entering a new era? And does it matter?
The world is a mixed-up place at present. The situation in Israel is suddenly its most violent in half a century, while a once-unimaginable war in Ukraine drags on with little sign of resolution. Relations between the US and China are deteriorating rapidly, almost as if Richard Nixon’s visit to Mao Zedong in 1972 had never happened. The US House of Representatives fired its speaker and then needed three weeks to agree on an ultra-conservative alternative. And, back on Points of Return’s normal territory, inflation has returned and the interest rates to control it are the highest in a generation.