Contemporary economists like to suggest that markets should become comfortable with negative rates and accept that they have an important role to play in the "science" of modern finance. But this analysis ignores the fundamental absurdity of the concept.
On November 30th the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it would admit China's Renminbi currency, commonly known as the Yuan, to the select basket of reserve currencies that make up its Special Drawing Rights (SDR's).
The U.S. presence in the Middle East, which for years provided some control over one of the world's most volatile regions, appears to have dissolved into chaos.
More than 300,000 migrants have risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, according to the UN. This compares with 219,000 for the whole of 2014.
Like many of the important discussions in the economic world today, the negotiations between Greece and its European creditors has become increasingly absurd.
Late last year, with the U.S. economy experiencing falling unemployment and seemingly low inflation, observers were extremely confident that the Federal Reserve would move judiciously in 2015 to restore 'normal' interest rates sooner rather than later.
The military actions that the UK has committed herself to conduct will have a low probability of achieving the stated objective of "degrading and destroying" ISIL.
