Christmas

This Rebel Came Armed With a Balance Sheet

 By JOHN STEELE GORDON

When most people think about the American Revolution, they think about the remarkable ideals that lay behind it and that guide the country still, or they think of the war itself, with Gen. Washington's men freezing and half-starved at Valley Forge.
What doesn't come to mind very often is how the Revolution was paid for. "Wars are fought with silver bullets," according to a Chinese saying, meaning that the side with the most money usually wins. But in the case of the Revolution, Great Britain—the richest country in Europe and the possessor of the most advanced financial system—lost despite its silver bullets. And it lost to a ragtag bunch of former colonies that didn't have a regular money supply, let alone a financial system. Nor did the rebels have the capacity to manufacture arms or gunpowder in any quantity.

ABN marks time with new indices

ABN Amro has launched a new range of stock market indices, designed to outperform traditional benchmarks with the aid of market timing. The new indices, which will be independently calculated by Standard & Poor's, will be called the ABN Amro Alpha range.

The indices are based on the observation that investors tend to reduce risk in the approach to the end of the month or to public holidays such as Christmas. ABN Amro believes this is because traders usually have to report profits and losses at the end of these periods. They accordingly wish to "lock in" their gains.

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