As with other innovations, it carries risks as well as benefits. Originally published August 2021. There is this great cartoon where a man sits behind a laptop having a Zoom call at his kitchen table perfectly shaven and dressed in a shiny shirt with tie, but under the table he is in his boxer shorts […]
Another instalment in a series of articles detailing how to design a secure, income-producing portfolio. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), for the 12 months ended January 2022, inflation soared to 7.5%, the highest annualised chance since 1982. During that same 12 month period, the S&P 500 rose 20%. Inflation decreases buying power and […]
Men my age are not riding high these days compared to back in the Renaissance or the 19th century, so I am taking a back seat and not getting fussed up. I appreciate new stuff like YouTube and the Unsubscribe option, and the peanut butter latte, but I don’t know who famous people are anymore […]
In December 2006, The Economist magazine published a cover drawing of Russian president Vladimir Putin, dressed like a 1930s gangster in a dark suit and fedora hat, under the headline ‘Don’t Mess with Russia’. Putin held a gasoline nozzle, gripping it like a machine gun. The target presumably was Europe, which relied heavily on Russia […]
Here’s how it played out. Originally published March 2022. It’s impossible to predict how the crisis in Ukraine will progress, but the rupture in relations between Russia and the West is unlikely to heal any time soon. At the very least, trade between these two sides is going to be badly affected for a long time. […]
British American Tobacco (BAT) has been out of favour with investors since 2017 when its shares reached a record-high price of more than £56. Over the next five years, BAT’s shares fell by as much as 50% as investors worried about the long-term future of the cigarette industry in an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment. With BAT’s […]
Welcome to the Zoomaverse (and you are welcome to it). Mark Twain is famously credited with saying: “Buy land, they’re not making it any more.” And then along came the metaverse. No doubt we all remember our basic micro-economics course and what we learned about the importance of demand and supply in setting prices. Given […]
As an economics professor, one concern I have long had is that I don’t want to limit how I train students to manipulate mathematical expressions which are typically unknowable to real world decision-makers (such as what the future demand curve for a firm’s product will be once production is completed, at the time they are […]
In the depths of addiction nothing else matters. The pursuit is focused, relentless and uncompromising – dismissive of any potential consequences. So what happens when the addiction is to risk? I learnt about the nature of addiction to risk from the experience of my family. I have witnessed the recklessness and the consequences of loss. […]
…and we simply don’t care enough. Originally published October 2021. The publication of the 3,949 page Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Report in early August elicited many different comments from governments, the media and individuals around the world. This is the sixth such report (and only part one of three) and likely to […]
