All is Money

This is Singapore, a city-state nation just off the coast of Malaysia it is one of the most praised and highly regarded economies amongst the business community in the world. It was up until recently ranked by the world bank as the easiest country in the world to conduct business, but it has recently been usurped by new Zealand of all places so make of that what you will. Even been content with its silver medal though Singapore has made itself a central home of finance, business, and trade for all of southeast Asia which is remarkable considering it is a nation without much in the way of land, resources, or even a particularly large population.

Singapore has obviously had some advantages, it was in the right place a the right time both economically and geographically to capitalize on the growth of Asia as a global region of trade. But prosperity wouldn’t have just happened to a small little spit of land off the coast of Malaysia with very little in the way of arable land or natural resources. It did the right things to ensure it was the go-to a middleman for as much as it could be a part of in the region by developing the right mix of the right economic policies and not containing itself to one ideology to dictate the direction of the entire nation.

In July of 2009, The Central Bank of Sweden lowered its overnight deposit rate to negative 0.25% – effectively charging the country's retail banks to pay it to look after its money.

At the turn of the millennia, negative interest rates were somewhat of an economic fantasy: the same way that light-speed travel is a fantasy for theoretical physicists. Economists had speculated about what negative interest rates would mean, but nobody actually ever expected this phenomenon to exist in the real world.

Today, negative interest rates dominate the market for sovereign bonds and are the staple of many central banks. But how in the world does this make sense? Who in their right mind would pay someone to take their money? ... all this and more in today's episode!

Venezuela. Once the richest country in all of Latin America, it is now home to the single greatest economic downturn for a country in modern history. In terms of countries that had it easy, Venezuela, by all counts, should be at the top of the list. It's home to the largest oil deposits in the world – easily beating out the typical oil giants like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab eremites ... but they squandered it.

A lot has been said about the political issues surrounding the downfall of Venezuela, and don’t get me wrong there have been plenty of political issues, but in this episode, we will just focus on the fundamental economics behind Venezuela's unprecedented rise and its devastating fall.

This is Canada, a highly advanced first world country blessed with an abundance of natural resources and polite people. This nation is often a side though when compared to its far more influential and much louder brother to the south, but Canada is an extremely important economy in its own rights with a few key contributors that make it truly unique in the western hemisphere. For starters, it is a commonwealth country meaning that while it is a free and independent state, it still takes a lot of its lessons from its mother back across the Atlantic ocean.

The nation is also blessed and cursed by its own geography and anther issue worth exploring is the love/hate relationship that Canada has had with skilled immigration in the past decades.

In this episode, we'll explore the issues facing Canada and look respectively at how they are the perfect case study for the world as a whole.

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Why are Stocks Still Rising Q&A

Why are Hot Countries Poorer than Cold Countries + Adam Smith Q&A, Discussion

VOC Q&A

Will China Win Out in 2020 Q&A

UAE Q&A session