article thumbnail

How to Improve Your Finance Skills (Even If You Hate Numbers)

Harvard Business

If you’re not a numbers person, finance is daunting. Stop avoiding finance because you’re afraid of numbers. Think of it this way, “Finance is the way businesses keep score. “Finance and accounting are very simple. .” “Finance and accounting are very simple. Overcome your fears.

Finance 28
article thumbnail

The age old tale of financial crises

Tom Spencer

trillion dollars buying troubled assets and bonds in order to provide liquidity to banks from 2008 to 2015. Moreover, balance sheet data from the Federal Reserve shows that the acquired assets have remained fairly consistent in value, indicating that the underlying assets were not altogether a lost cause.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Persistent Overoptimism Three Ways: Truckers, Fed Economists, Manufacturers

MishTalk

A possible explanation for the SEP’s prediction of a rapid catch-up to potential GDP after 2009 is that participants overestimated the efficacy of monetary policy in the aftermath of a so-called balance-sheet recession. Here are the readings for 2015. Month/Year Current Conditions Expected Conditions 1/2015 7.78

article thumbnail

The Globalization Backlash Is Reverberating Through Boardrooms

Harvard Business

In 2015, Global Trade Alert, an independent trade-monitoring group, cited at least 644 discriminatory trade measures imposed by the G20 economies with the U.S. Meanwhile the Institute of International Finance forecasted net capital flows for emerging markets in 2015 would be negative for the first time since 1988.

article thumbnail

Why Apple Is Getting into the Energy Business

Harvard Business

Energy-efficient lighting, motors, and other hardware continue to make good sense for many firms, whether financed on the balance sheet or by third parties who provide the upfront capital and then share the savings on future power bills. What can today’s non-energy CEOs do to prepare their firms for a prosumer future?

Energy 28
article thumbnail

China Cash Crunch Eases, For How Long? Three Things China Needs to Avoid; When can Beijing Truly move to Market-Determined Interest Rates?

MishTalk

Total credit in the economy (total social financing) showed a 40 per cent rise in November over the prior month and is on course for growth this year of almost 20 per cent. In fact we can judge the effectiveness of Beijing’s implementation of the reforms by how rapidly growth declines over the 2014 and 2015.

article thumbnail

Pettis on Strains in China's Banking System; Avoiding the Fall

MishTalk

The fact that rates were cut, even though many reformers within the administration were very much opposed, exemplifies the challenges that Beijing will face in 2015. We are going to see this argument replayed many times in 2015. in November, completing nearly three years of monthly declines.

Banking 71