Chairman's Blog

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   One ended 2023 with a hope that the Season of Goodwill might have some impact, however small, on the two humanitarian disasters being created in Ukraine by Russia and Palestine by Israel. Two conflicts that are the results of long-term friction and strife between the four countries involved.  […]

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   Since October, two terrorist incursions, in Ukraine and Israel, have bogged down into wars of attrition.  The final outcome of either is not at all clear, as both conflicts are the result of enormously complex histories and are subject to Western political and financial support.  The support in […]

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   Since September the pattern of worries that we had settled into following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been suspended by Hamas’s lightening attack on Israel.  Two States – one large, one small – headed by terrorist leaders seem to show that the world order has taken a dramatic […]

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   September so far seems to be more like mid-summer with the highest temperatures on record in the UK, capping even the June heatwave.  The weather pattern seems to be mirroring the UK’s national statistics that yoyo from positive to negative to positive numbers with monotonous regularity. Central Bank […]

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   July brings some relief from the scorching hot days of June for the UK.  The unprecedented heatwaves in southern Europe and central US hopefully will focus minds on the global- warming issue.  A long-term problem that is arriving as the long-term becomes short-term. The global meetings that agreed […]

by Damon de Laszlo, ERC Chairman   May probably was the tipping point for Western economies when the projected economic downturn started to appear in the statistics.  June is showing more evidence with property prices clearly going off the top and defaults now starting to rattle the banks’ view of their property loan book.  Lay-offs […]