Thank Fathom it’s Friday! No doubt, our regular readers eagerly await this blog as a watershed moment in their working week. I can hear the sound of pens dropping, keyboards stopping mid-sentence and the occasional gasp of excitement punctuating the silence of the open-plan office as the weekly TFIF email drops in your inboxes. At Fathom, sending off TFIF also coincides with the beginning of ‘beer o’clock’, our customary post-work Friday drinks. To us, TFIF represents the joint celebration of

As children in the early noughties, my brothers and I would take any opportunity to relentlessly petition our parents to buy us a pack of Pokémon cards. We would offer deals such as promising to clean our rooms, or argue (with absolute honesty of course) that our friends’ parents were buying them hundreds of cards and they couldn’t possibly want us to be left out! Whichever method we chose, it rarely worked. Now that I'm older I can only laugh

Emerald-green grass and pristine, light-coloured outfits are the hallmarks of the Wimbledon championships, commonly known as just ‘Wimbledon’ — the world’s oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament. For most, the experience would be incomplete without indulging (at some expense) in a bowl of juicy red strawberries and clotted cream. For wealthy tennis fans seeking an investment, however, Wimbledon offers an even juicier opportunity to splash out. That opportunity is not a bond, nor a stock, nor a ticket, nor even

Last week was hot; the mercury touched 31°C on Friday. That doesn’t happen too often in the UK. You might think that would be cause for celebration, but no — not in Britain. In Britain, it was too hot. Yep, that’s right — if there’s a reason to complain about the weather, we’ll find it… I asked my colleagues what impact they thought Friday’s weather had on their productivity. There were a variety of responses ranging from -20% to +10%

“QE…works in practice but it doesn’t work in theory” Ben Bernanke If you ask people what Quantitative Easing does, you’ll get a list of answers as large as the Fed’s balance sheet. For many, it seems, the purchase of assets by central banks can be used to explain whatever their bugbear happens to be. Inequality? Overvalued stock markets? Inflation? Elevated house prices? Currency wars? Actual wars? Commodity price rises? At different points, all of the above have been pointed to

“My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne.” – John Maynard Keynes Last weekend I celebrated a special birthday (yes, one with a zero on the end, but no, I’m not 50). As a treat, I decided to indulge: take my wife and one-year old daughter to Champagne; rent a luxurious villa with friends; visit a number of Champagne houses in a rented Tesla; spend a night at a super fancy chateau and buy (and drink)

It’s Economics 1.01: the laws of demand and supply state that as prices increase, buyers will demand less of a good and sellers will seek to supply more of it. Together, these forces determine market prices. But what if I told you that you that many brands choose to intentionally under-price their goods — seemingly passing up the opportunity to maximise their profits in the process? Imagine this. You’ve just paid a visit to your favourite jeweller and bought a

I learnt a new word recently — 'larping’. If you’re as baffled as I was what that means, it stands for live action role-playing: the kind of activity associated with the Sealed Knot historical reenactment society, or the people who dress up as their Dungeons & Dragons avatar at gaming conventions. What does this have to do with Fathom? Read on to find out… Earlier this month, I larped with Fathom. Fathom has designed other economic games (also known as

Macro is back. I cannot remember a time when people I have worked with have collectively nailed so many calls in such a short period of time. Risks we flagged throughout 2021 — about inflation, higher food and commodity prices, geopolitical tensions, market downside and policy risks in the US, UK and China —have all come to pass, often within tiny margins of error. It’s good to have a positive story to tell. Too often economists are treated either as

I reached an important chronological milestone this year. In early March I turned 50. A few days before this important event I was due to speak at a conference in Warrington. It was to be my first appearance in a suit since the pandemic hit. I was able to find assorted jackets and trousers hanging up in the office, and yet more in a wardrobe at home. But I struggled to put together a matching set. Having moved house last