Daily Archives: October 28, 2010

For most of my life in macroeconomics, I have tended to be very dismissive of anecdotes from the world of business. They run the risk of exaggerating the importance of specific experiences in a small number of companies, and behavioural finance warns us that human beings tend to over-estimate the significance of events which happen directly to them, rather than to others. I also believe that business people are no better than anyone else at predicting the economy (which in my mind is tit-for-tat, since they certainly believe that economists cannot do it either). With that warning, here are a couple of anecdotes from my recent meetings with Nick Evans and Spencer Skinner, my partners at Active Private Equity. Maybe they are straws in the wind.

Gavyn Davies

on macroeconomics

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A blog on macroeconomics, economic policymaking and the financial markets. Gavyn usually writes about a key topic of the week on Sunday.

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Gavyn Davies is a macroeconomist who is now chairman of Fulcrum Asset Management and co-founder of Prisma Capital Partners. He was the head of the global economics department at Goldman Sachs from 1987-2001, and was chairman of the BBC from 2001-2004.

He has also served as an economic policy adviser in No 10 Downing Street, an external adviser to the British Treasury, and as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Gavyn Davies is an active investor and may have financial interests and holdings in any of the topics about which he writes. The views expressed are solely those of Mr Davies and in no way reflect the views of Prisma Capital Partners LP, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP, their respective affiliates or representatives. This material is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment advice or recommendations. Readers are urged to seek professional advice before making any investments.

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