Across Europe, voters are currently casting their ballots in the European parliamentary elections. However, Europeans already voted in a similarly contentious (albeit less consequential) poll last Saturday to crown this year’s winner of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). I must admit, I’m not a particularly avid follower of the annual spectacle (except for the occasional incongruously alternative acts such as latex-laden industrial or theatrical shock rock), but the general enthusiasm for the ESC certainly rivals that of political elections, with

For a (neutral) football fan, last week was truly exciting. Both Champions League semi-finals produced major surprises. Liverpool FC beat FC Barcelona to progress to the final despite having lost the first leg 3-0. Tottenham Hotspur beat Ajax Amsterdam in dramatic fashion, scoring three goals in the second half — the last one in the 96th minute — despite having lost the first leg and having been two nil down at half time. People who, against the odds, went to

As I forced my way onto the Northern Line from King’s Cross to Old Street this morning, to a muttered chorus of grumbles and coarse epithets from my fellow passengers, and crouched as the too-low train doors jolted shut uncomfortably close to my right ear, while inhaling nauseating amounts of the product in the hair of the man to my right and bringing my heel to rest on the toe of the woman to my left, regretting for the nth

April was a time for reflection, or rather, one of those periods when one reflects about time. As the Fathom off-site drew to a close on a sunny Bilbao afternoon, and I lay on a park bench, slightly tender from the night before and in dire need of caffeine, time stood still as if bowing to an overload of contentment and inner peace. Ok, I had simply dozed off after an overindulgent couple of days, but there was more to

As an undergraduate student of economics in the early 1990s I was made to take a course in comparative politics. For the most part, I found it rather dull. “I’ve come here to study economics. Why do I have sit through all this politics stuff? It’s so boring”, was pretty much my attitude at the time. But there was one exception. I do recall listening with interest to a lecture concerned with the measurement, and the classification of political opinion.

Three bags of wine gums in two days, four coffees in one day, a chilli cheeseburger for lunch, slouching in my chair, an energy drink, no exercise for two weeks, a glass of wine when I got home, some stress and a few more grey hairs thrown into the mix. I wasn’t at my healthiest as I worked late to deliver the quarterly update of our Financial Vulnerability Indicator (FVI), a powerful and comprehensive tool which we have developed and

How do you know someone is running a marathon? They will mention it right at the beginning of their blog post. But it’s not just me. All over town, people are logging miles, boring their friends with tales of the taper (sometimes this includes cigarettes as well as lunch 10ks), and doing their bit to keep Nike’s share price near record highs. Different people have different objectives. In my case, I set a goal of beating Mark Carney’s time from

Bruce Willis, Jeff Bezos, Stanley Tucci, Homer Simpson, Matt Lucas…the list of famous men with infamous hairlines is (ironically) long and growing. The psychological literature has plenty to say on the benefits accruing to them because of their baldness. A Wharton study found that men with shaved heads are perceived as more dominant, taller and stronger than their natural selves.[1] But the economics profession also has something to say on the matter via the late William Baumol — who also

The annual phenomenon of the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion is once again in full swing, and has fast-food enthusiasts up and down the country excited. For a few weeks each year, customers get coupons with their food purchases which give them a chance to win free menu items, or they can collect game tokens, based on the Monopoly board game, for the chance to win large cash prizes. Ever since the promotion started in 1987 in the US, it has spread

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing. That's a fact, It's a thing we can't deny Katie Melua, 2005 Let’s be clear, there are not nine million bicycles in London. That would imply almost one bike for every person in London. But there are a lot. What’s more, spurred on by Britain’s quartet of Grand Tour winners (Wiggins, Froome, Thomas and Yates) and Britons’ growing desire to keep fit, bike usage seems to be on the up. Indeed, a quarter