“All political lives…end in failure”, wrote controversial British politician Enoch Powell in his biography of Joseph Chamberlain. You...

For those who have been around for a while, the day when the pricing of London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts switched from UK sterling...

It seems as though the media had almost forgotten about the debt and deficit until very recently. They have been waxing lyrical of course...

It was possibly one of Glencore’s better deals –  to buy the Mufulira and Nkana operations of ZCCM from the Zambian Government at...

This morning, I read the obituary of Nelson Bunker Hunt. (London papers are clearly a little behind the times, since he actually died a...

This being LME Dinner Week, I have been quite occupied. Richard Horswill has kindly stepped in to write this article (the first half of a...

I hear a whisper from a substantial mining house to the effect that they are considering whether or not it would make sense for them to...

A New Jersey-based trader was indicted last Thursday in Chicago on charges of manipulating commodities markets. It is alleged that...

If you look at the world today, lots of it looks pretty chaotic. Violent insurgency is changing the face of the Middle East, making a...

It doesn’t all seem to have gone as planned, this summer. Anybody else remember the euphoria about rampant nickel prices a few months...

The ‘Dog Days’ of summer are traditionally the period of sultry weather experienced in Europe in July and August. Originally a Roman...

I guess it would be nigh-on impossible now to find anybody who would speak in favour of the quaint concept of lending money to people who...

Back in the nineteenth century, London pioneered a practice of putting blue plaques on the walls of buildings where significant people...

“It’s similar to the Fix, but with an algorithm in place of the Chairman.” “It’s another sign of the dehumanisation of financial...

A few days ago was the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the first World War. For anyone who cocks even half an eye to...

I normally steer well clear of issues related to politics on this site, but I thought it may be interesting to look at the latest round...

The topic du jour amongst the forensic element of the financial community, if I judge by the number of requests for explanations and...

In 1916, an impoverished, partly-trained engineer called Alves Reis, son of an undertaker and with a new young wife, left his native...

The departure of several high-profile banks from the metal trading business has been welcomed in some quarters – indeed my own view is...

Here, where I am staying at The Celebrity City Hotel in Chengdu, the sun never shines. Or rather it shines, but cannot be seen. The sun...