The Daily Friend dailyfriend.co.za October 18, 2026 On the surface all is good. Growth is solid, the dollar strong. The economy is running at full employment, having matched a 1960s record with the jobless rate below 5% for 61 consecutive months. Despite a 40% rise in fuel prices from the Iran war, the stock market has been at record highs. So, what could possibly go wrong? The answer … Continue reading Fragility in US Financial Markets?
US interest rates have climbed to a 24-year high. Barry has an answer in this 50-second video. Continue reading Higher Rates, Financial Risk?
The Daily Friend October 4, 2026 One hundred years ago, in the summer of 1926, Bill Shirer and Grant Wood sat on the terrace of the Deux Magots café in Paris and sipped white wine. Aspiring journalist Shirer was 22, painter Wood 35. Both came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a town of little consequence in the heart of the Midwest corn belt. Wood had borrowed … Continue reading The Pursuit of Excellence: Grant Wood and William Shirer, From Cedar Rapids to the World
by Barry D. Wood As a crisis response entity, the Group of 20 was superb. In 2009 at the nadir of the global financial crisis, leaders from lands accounting for 85% of global output agreed to flood their stumbling economies with cash—demonstrating to a benumbed public that competent leadership was in charge, that confidence would be restored—and most importantly–there would not be a worldwide depression. … Continue reading Trump’s G20: Back to Basics
Franz Kafka lives on in Hong Kong and Washington OPINIONS BARRY D. WOOD SEP 6, 2026 – LISTEN TO THIS In Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel, The Trial, Prague bank clerk Joseph K is arrested but not told why. He was informed neither of the nature of the purported crime nor the names of the accusers. He is left to speculate about what was going on. On May … Continue reading Franz Kafka Is Alive in Hong Kong and Washington
