As a child in 1943, the Indian economist Amartya Sen watched one of the worst famines of the 20th century sweep through his native Bengal. Contrary to the popular image, the disaster didn’t manifest as a widespread shortage of food, he later wrote. The middle classes hadn’t “experienced the slightest problem during the entire famine,” which primarily affected ”landless rural ...

Bloomberg At the start of a week stuffed with central-bank activity, US equities fell and European stocks drifted following steep share declines in Asia. Treasuries advanced as investors greeted on Monday in a cautious mood. The S&P 500 fell for a second day after the blow-out jobs report altered market calculus for Federal Reserve rate cuts, though equities came off ...

Bloomberg The status of the world’s least favourite asset has its benefits. Morgan Stanley, which just slashed global equities to underweight on growth concerns, believes that European stocks can outperform weaker markets. Although European equities have over the past 30 years tended to decline more than global markets during corrections, that relationship is changing, strategists led by Graham Secker said ...