When I was ten years old, my dream was to become an archaeologist. I grew out of it when I realised that mud, dust, and dirt are not my comfort zones. Though sad to realise that I would never discover the next hidden treasure myself, I found solace in learning about discoveries of ancient sites through the arguably more dirt-free platform of books, magazines, and documentaries. During a recent ‘hunt’ for the next intriguing read, I came across research studying

I’ve been called many names in my lifetime. As a child, my parents called me “Andrew”. At school, a bit more variation was introduced. Sometimes, I was “Andy”. Slightly shorter, made sense.  Occasionally, I was referred to as “Harris” (my surname) — there was another Andy/Andrew so it helped to avoid confusion. A few of my peers even referred to me as “Charlton” after the football team I support. Weird, but they’re a great team so I really should’ve been

Earlier this month, I arrived in Washington DC to set up Fathom’s US office. I finished high school in the city so it hasn’t been a huge culture shock. However, having lived in the UK for most of the past decade, there are some differences that have immediately caught my eye. Yes, the weather is better. (Hard to imagine the opposite?) And the food portions are bigger. But it’s more than just that. The Good Innovation: Americans are generally more

The Matrix movies popularised the idea that normality and reality may be subjective concepts that cannot be pinned down with any degree of accuracy across time or space. The perception of reality continually evolves based on our individual and collective experiences and sensory rationalisations. Eyes, in particular, hold a prominent role in this process just like sunglasses did in the movie. I must have been about the same age as my son (nine) when I had my own Matrix moment

Ever since I was a young child looking through my atlas, I’ve been fascinated by the different countries of the world, their capital cities, the size of their populations, and the different commodities they produce. I vaguely recollect the US population being around 220 million in those far-flung days, which gives readers a clue to my age! I am eternally grateful to my parents for taking me on foreign holidays which piqued my interest in other countries and cultures, although

There is a lot more to publishing economic research than there might seem: coming up with ideas, collecting the data, interpreting those data, looking for interesting angles, poking holes in your own arguments, and having (ahem) ‘helpful’ colleagues do the same. Oh yes, throughout the process, we debate things among the team. When we put together our quarterly forecasts those discussions can last for hours, and get quite animated. Today, to give the outside world a flavour of such discussions,

As a more senior Fathom employee, I’m about to hang up my mouse and keyboard for what really is the last time. On the other hand, perhaps I should never say never. You see, this is my second shot at retiring. I eagerly jumped off the conveyor belt of work at the age of 60 after a long career in financial services, only to jump back on again two years later when I started work with Fathom. My partner was

Today, 10 September 2021, marks 20 years since one of the great scandals of British television began to unfold. Charles Ingram, a former British army major, was a contestant in the hot seat of the quiz show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’. At the end of the first day’s filming the major's chances did not look particularly promising, as he had already used two of his lifelines on early questions. But by the time cameras stopped rolling on 10

As we finalise our latest Global Economic and Markets Outlook, I have been thinking a lot about how other people make their own economic forecasts: it turns out we cannot make ours without taking a view on that. Read on to find out why! The expectations of firms, households and investors are central to the macroeconomic models used by central banks, and by others in the business of making economic forecasts. The New-Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) is a case in