In 1837, Hans Christian Andersen published a short story about an emperor who cared more for clothes than for anything else. Two swindlers arrive in his city claiming to weave the finest cloth in the world, with one remarkable property: it’s invisible to anyone who is stupid or unfit for their job. The emperor can’t […]
The Emperor’s New Script Read More »
In September 1933, a doctor in Long Beach, California, looked out of his window and saw two elderly women in tattered clothes going through his dustbins for food. That, at least, is how Francis Townsend told it later. Whatever the exact details, what he did next is a matter of record. He wrote to the
Youth for Work, Age for Leisure Read More »
In the mid-1990s, a toy company in Illinois started selling small, under-stuffed animals for $5 each. They were called Beanie Babies, and they were nice enough, but the company worked out something clever. It began “retiring” particular characters after a short run, announcing that a given bear, lobster or platypus would never be made again.
Meme Coins and the Greater Fool Read More »
Well Andy Burnham promised us a government to steady the ship and not spook the Bond markets. We didn’t think he meant boring budgets that seems to annoy both sides. To be clear we are not party political with this blog, we tend to dislike all chancellors equally. As this graphic from the wonderful Tax
Budget 2026, Read Properly Read More »
There is a very pretty village near to our office in Hook, that is regularly rated as one of the best places to live. It contains five churches of varying sizes, ages and popularity. The most popular is also the ugliest (according to Pevsner in his architectural guide) and a decade ago they decided to
The Folly of Paying a Percentage Read More »
On 16 October 1906, a captain of the Prussian Guards marched into the town of Köpenick, just outside Berlin, with ten soldiers behind him. He occupied the town hall, had the mayor and the treasurer arrested for corruption, and confiscated the municipal treasury. It totalled 4,002 marks and 37 pfennigs, which is a huge amount
Our Logo But on a Fake Building Read More »
Stock markets continued to edge higher, returning 1.5% as measured by ACWI. This was driven by strong corporate earnings which kept equity markets resilient despite increased concerns around persistent higher inflation driven by renewed escalations in the Middle East. Japanese equities were the best performing region, driven on by very strong earnings for a number
In 1992, football changed one rule and transformed the sport. The 1990 World Cup had been, by common consent, dreadful. Teams would go a goal up and then simply pass the ball back to their goalkeeper, who’d pick it up, bounce it, roll it out, and wait for someone to pass it back to him
EIS vs AIM: When the Rules Change the Game Read More »
Somewhere in your inbox right now there’s an invitation you’re going to accept. A dinner, a committee, a favour for someone you met once at a conference. It’s months away, so it costs nothing. Future you will have loads of time. Future you never does. The economist Tim Harford wrote about this in his Financial
In 1976, an American gerontologist called Robert Atchley tried to map what happens to people when they stop working. What he described has stood up remarkably well in the fifty years since. Retirement, he suggested, tends to arrive in phases. First a honeymoon: the lie-ins, the trips, the joy of a Monday morning with nowhere
Retirement is 75% Emotional Read More »
