Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s Blog

How relevant are the Brics, the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China? As we start 2009, seven years after Goldman Sachs popularised the “Bric” term, and as these countries face their first big external “shock” this decade, this is a crucial question.
Is it now time to edit this group to “Bic”, dropping [...]

Why did we mostly get “it” so sensationally wrong?  How did something that looks increasingly like the precursor of a  slowdown or slump creep up on almost all of us last  year?  It is a pretty good question.  It is a pretty embarrassing one, too.  Perhaps this was more than could reasonably be expected.  But [...]

The stockbroker’s lexicon is full of euphemisms. One of the more insidious is “a stock-pickers’ market”. The positive spin on such a market is that there are returns on offer for those who pick the right stocks. A more realistic take is that the market as a whole is doing nothing - but you might [...]

Nassim Taleb has benefited hugely from walking his talk. If talking about black swans has proven rewarding (in terms of global notoriety and royalties) since the publication of his memorable book, “Black Swan” walking it has recently delivered rich pickings in monetary terms. Perhaps most relevant to him, it has also finally vindicated a life [...]

 “Freedom!” is a perennial rallying cry, but “free markets!” never had the same ring to it, even in years where the record of free markets looked impressive. 2008 has not been one of those years. So was 2008 the year that capitalism died? And if not, is 2009 the year that we should put capitalism [...]