US economy slows to our pace
November remains a positive month in capital markets, although equities had a neutral week and longer bond prices have fallen back. UK government bonds (Gilts) have been the best performing bond market in the past few weeks, but the tax cuts announced in last Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, although relatively minor, were enough to push the ten-year Gilt yield back up above 4.25% (rising yields mean falling bond prices).
The AI governance dilemma
The Silicon Valley soap opera keeps delivering. Recently, investor darling OpenAI shocked the world by suddenly firing superstar CEO Sam Altman for not being “consistently candid in his communications”. One intriguing rumour was that OpenAI had made a step-change discovery in the field of general intelligence which had been kept from the board.
Can radical Milei bring stability to Argentina?
Voters in Argentina have never really been ones for moderation. After decades of on-off Peronist leaders – a populist ideology with strong economic intervention from the state – a far-right libertarian that wants to cut the state down with a “chainsaw” has won the presidency. Javier Milei, an economist, TV personality and self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” won Argentina’s run-off election by a surprisingly large margin last week, beating centre-left Sergio Massa – the current economy minister – by 56% to 44%.