What do economists know about relationships? After all, you “Can’t buy me love” as the Beatles said. But perhaps listening to an economist’s views isn’t so crazy. Ultimately, many economic models of relationships are founded on the same key theme as any Mills & Boon novel — that is, the idea that ‘coupling up’ provides some kind of additional benefit to both parties.[1] To the average paperback writer, this benefit might simply be the additional joy that a relationship can

At Fathom, writing the TFiF blog is always greeted with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Picking a suitable topic tends to be half the struggle. I would obviously love to write exclusively, as I did last time, about exotic holidays, but I’ll leave this privilege to one of my colleagues returning from a one-year sabbatical trip around the world. Not that I’m jealous (I am!), but the hard-biting reality of middle agedness tends to steer me towards a choice

Visiting family last weekend, I found myself having to answer a question that I’ve heard on a regular basis since my engagement a little over two years ago, and which has become even more pressing in the eyes of my mother-in-law since the wedding last month: do I intend to change my surname? The answer is “no”. I’m not entirely sure why, and I’m even less sure how to explain that to my mother-in-law. Perhaps I’ve over-binged on the television

In Tupac Shakur’s social justice battle cry, Changes, the late rapper criticised his government’s priorities: “instead of a war on poverty, they got a war on drugs, so the police can bother me”. More than twenty years after his death, the war on drugs — or poverty for that matter — is little closer to being won.[1]. Meanwhile, the American government has fired the opening salvo in a different kind of battle: one against existing trade arrangements. Donald Trump is

The Brits love talking about the weather. That fact, one would imagine, is covered in the ‘culture’ section of any decent guidebook aimed at foreign visitors to these islands. According to a survey carried out by the BBC, a staggering 94% of us will have talked about the weather within the past six hours alone. For my grandmother, the weather was central to the success or failure of any occasion. “Haven’t we been fortunate with the weather?” she was often

When Gandalf picks the Ring out of the fire and shows it to Frodo, words glow into life that were etched into the gold.[1] Frodo says: “I cannot read the fiery letters”. Gandalf explains that they are written in an ancient script, which he renders in the common speech as: “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” This wasn’t just a pretty trinket, capable

Since it started in 1995 as a website which only sold books, Amazon has morphed into a $1 trillion, global e-commerce behemoth, or ‘an everything store’ realising the vision founder Jeff Bezos had for the company when he started it from his garage. Much like a number of the world’s biggest brands, including Apple and Microsoft, Amazon had humble origins. In those early days, the power required to run early vintages of what would eventually become the Amazon servers meant

The Companies Act of 2006 (Article 155 (1)) states that a company must have “…at least one director who is a natural person”. I wonder whether any of Fathom’s directors fit that description. On closer examination, the legal definition of ‘a natural person’ is an entity to which can be accorded legal rights and responsibilities, and which can enter into a contract (that makes one a person, for legal purposes, and legal ‘persons’ include companies and other entities), with the

“Summer of 2018” doesn’t roll off the tongue like the (in)famous Bryan Adams song. However, it too will stick in my memory, but for all the right reasons. Last October, my wife and I snatched a ridiculously cheap airfare to Japan for the whole family. The closest I had got to Japan before was through long and fascinating discussions with a Japanese flatmate about the cultural differences between us. The perceived gap from both sides was so large that it

Occasionally when we're apart my girlfriend and I send each other little emoji kisses by text. Very cute and romantic, I know. A normal person would accept this situation, embrace it and continue to enjoy it. But one day my brain, as if controlled by some sort of economist God, got the better of me and I began wondering whether by texting too many kisses, we were lowering the value of a kiss. So I suggested that we restrict supply