The view from my office window has recently seen the addition of another crane. This latest arrival is now the fifth that occupies my view of the Leeds skyline. Exciting, right? Don’t worry, I can promise you I don’t like cranes enough to write a whole blog on them. But stay with me, as they did get me thinking… I recall a few years ago hearing from fellow Fathom staff that counting the cranes on a city’s skyline can give

I was walking around Angel a few weeks ago when I came across a display of books outside a store, with a sign saying, “Blind date with a book”. The books were individually wrapped in brown paper, and the only thing differentiating them was a few words of description, printed in black. “Lost and found. Connections. Uplifting. Love. Enchanting,” was one, next to one that said: “Mythic. Silkworms. Contemporary. Epic saga.” You don’t find out which book it is until

For the many people who feel the need to splash out on flowers, chocolate, dinner, and everything else that comes along with Valentine’s Day, it must feel like an obvious conclusion that the holiday was devised by marketing gurus. Holidays like these are surrounded by little conspiracy theories: St. Patrick's Day has been plotted by beer companies, Easter and Halloween are obvious marketing stunts by Hershey's, Cadbury and Mars. So, who ultimately ‘stole’ Valentine’s Day? When Valentine's Day approaches, and

Cricket is more popular than football. Yes, you heard me right. According to the Google Trends review of 2022, ‘England vs India’ was searched for more often than ‘FIFA World Cup’. Indeed, Indian cricket takes up four of the top ten most popular searches! Wordle was top (of course), but not a single economics term is included in the top ten. Disappointing… If you were to ask me what the key cyclical macroeconomic variables are, then I’d tell you GDP,

500g of beef shekla tibs[1]: 450 birr 4 beers: 150 birr Total: 600 birr At official exchange rate: $11 US At parallel exchange rate: $6 US The restaurants of Addis Ababa fill up at the end of each year, with conversations switching between American-accented Amharic and English. A combination of domestic and international holidays, and the particularly fine weather compared to the shivering northern hemisphere, makes it a popular time to visit. Colloquially known as ‘diaspora season’, it runs into

After two years living in charming Kraków, I decided it was time for a change. A few options were on the table, but London stood out thanks to its astonishing historical architecture, rich cultural offer, endless leisure activities and cosmopolitan environment. Finally, as an economist I couldn’t resist the appeal of working in one of the biggest financial hubs in the world — definitely an experience worth having. The decision was made, but where should I start? And most importantly,

Is there any three-letter acronym that gets bandied around as much, is as poorly understood, and annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum as much as ESG? In today’s blog I explain the problems with grouping an ill-defined mass of hard-to-measure environmental, social and governance factors into a single score. Some of the criticisms of ESG are unfair. But being realistic about what ESG can and cannot do, what it is and what it isn’t, is key to

As I was doing my daily chores whilst at home in Norway during Christmas, I started thinking about the interesting way that Norway incentivises the recycling of plastic bottles and metal cans. This includes donating to the Red Cross with a very small chance of winning up to 1,000,000 kroner.[1] Continue reading if you would like to know how on earth this is all linked – and why children’s sports teams in Norway go around collecting plastic bottles to fund

I made my final ever New Year's resolution the other week — never to talk or speak about New Year’s resolutions again. So, for the first Thank Fathom it’s Friday blog of the year, it looked like I might be in a spot of bother finding a topical subject. But then I noticed the publication date — 6 January, celebrated across the Christian world as the Feast of the Epiphany. And so I thought — what on earth is an

I recently attended my best friend’s wedding in County Sligo and, in an effort to elevate my otherwise fairly low-brow speech, included a line from WB Yeats, who adored that part of the world. Given that Yeats’ poetry is predominantly about the frustrations of unrequited love and patriotism, I had to hunt through his work to find the line that would raise glasses rather than handkerchiefs! During that search, I reread ‘September 1913’, a timeless masterpiece that still makes spines