It’s time to prepare for the near future. As the world slowly and unevenly emerges from the two years of pandemic lockdowns, we are entering a new normal that is increasingly defined by a few critical and unprecedented factors. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) values and climate action will be pre-eminent among them, but against […]
Spending some time at Mayo, much of it ordinary, waiting, listening, doing as told, but some of it primal, such as the CAT scan in which I lay on a narrow platform, hands over my head, and was conveyed into a narrow tunnel in the dark and lay there, which made me imagine the vaginal […]
Why tech companies must address emissions caused by streaming and scrolling. Technology companies have been having a difficult year. The increased cost of living is turning people away from streaming, cryptocurrencies are faltering, Amazon has raised its prime membership costs, as has Twitter for its premium subscription model Twitter Blue. The latter’s ongoing legal wranglings with […]
This article was first published in May 2018. Investing is usually a matter of judgment as well as calculation. What will do well, and what will do best over the period you envisage? Investing in books — or art of any kind — includes this element, but it also includes intrinsic interest, pleasure, taste. A […]
Disappointing GDP growth and high inflation have many commentators talking about stagflation. Advanced estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis suggest real GDP fell for a second straight quarter in 2022. At the same time, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reached a 40-year high in June. Falling energy prices left the headline CPI unchanged in July, though core […]
Especially in a desert. The rally in Dubai luxury villas has been as swift as it has been spectacular since the autumn of 2020, with anecdotal evidence of 50 to 70% cumulative price rises. Constructed villas were a mere 20% of the Dubai housing stock after the protracted six-year bear market that saw prices plunge […]
Kicking off a three-part series on proptech, in its very widest sense, let’s look back first of all to the Stone Age. Originally published December 2020. Urbanisation has been a key driver for technological breakthroughs. But what was the catalyst for urbanisation and the rise of megacities, such as ancient Rome? Geography? Ruthless emperors? Good […]
What’s gold today may be coal tomorrow. It has been 15 years since Apple catapulted the smartphone into the mainstream, with the launch of the iPhone 1. Today there are more than six billion (and rising) smartphone users globally, all with a plethora of data services and demands. Mobile data is just the tip of the tech […]
Energy expert Q&A. While thermometers have been well into the red across the northern hemisphere, people are panicking about the cost of energy bills once winter starts to bite. According to the latest forecasts in the UK, the minimum price cap for households’ electricity and heating costs is set to more than double over the winter. […]
Life comes in focus as the day approaches It’s odd how a man facing heart surgery hears from friends who seem to have more on their minds than they’re willing to say. “How are you?” they say and, “Thinking about you”, in a way that suggests maybe they asked me months ago for a blurb […]
