When geopolitics impacts marketsFractious geopolitics doesn't always move world markets -- but the summer of 2021 may give us some glimpse about exactly where and how it does. The US dollar itself -- once seen as the safest harbour during military tensions -- has gone in the other direction this month. To be sure, many news- and research-based indexes measuring geopolitical risk are, rather surprisingly, still very low. But it mainly spotlighted the impact such a fracture could have on energy markets, grains and other agricultural foods of which Russia is a key supplier. For financial markets already fearful that pandemic-related money printing and debt accumulation makes inflation the next big bogeyman, that may be the biggest vulnerability.

Source: Bangkok Post April 21, 2021 04:52 UTC