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Bio:

Brian Milner is a senior economics writer and global markets columnist. In a long career at The Globe and Mail, he has covered diverse business beats, including international trade, the automotive industry, media, the debt markets and banking. He spent two years as an associate managing editor in the Report on Business, before becoming The Globe's New York bureau chief in 1994. From his vantage point in the world's financial capital, he covered the greatest economic and stock market boom in modern history, as well as a raft of U.S. political, cultural and social topics.

Mr. Milner first began writing a markets column called Taking Stock in late 2000, before joining the editorial board in 2003. He resumed writing the column on a weekly basis in 2007 after returning to the ROB. He is the author of a best-seller, The Hidden Establishment (Viking, 1991), which profiled secretive, wealthy immigrants. He is an award-winning magazine writer and has also written a history of Toronto for a popular guide book. And in his spare time, he has ghost-written and edited books on economic, social and sports subjects. The best known is Shifting Gears (Harper Collins 1993), one of the first books to examine the impact of the technological boom on the economy. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television.

Latest Columns:

U.S. edges toward recovery without help from housing

Analysts debate whether housing has yet hit bottom

Bernanke’s siren song for U.S. Treasury bonds

A good asset class to own because so much more is known about why they rise up and down in value

Money is pouring back into European bonds

Stocks with healthy balance sheets and strong market positions in other parts of the world also showing signs of life

Plenty to be optimistic about, just avoid the harbingers of gloom

Don’t take tips from late-to-the-party rating agencies, dithering eurocrats or fearful politicians

Recent cheery numbers mask U.S. economic woes

Money manager Rob Arnott sees eventual ‘3D hurricane’ of soaring debt and deficits and aging demographics

A requiem for European Union in need of intervention

Rush to reshape Europe could lead its destruction, warns Financial historian Niall Ferguson

Quantitative easing a necessary evil

The Tea Party crowd won’t like it, but best economic fix lies with a more activist Federal Reserve, economist argues

Former Wall Street trader prefers Namibia’s bonds to Italy’s

Small African nation has debt to GDP ratio of only 20 per cent, Jared Dillian points out

Take your stock valuations with a grain of salt

Buyer beware: Different valuation tools and outlooks offer widely divergent views of the recent uptick in the market.

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