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

Sunday marks the anniversary of St Patrick’s death, the foremost patron saint of Ireland, now better known as St Patrick’s Day. While some still use the occasion to commemorate the missionary St Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, it has become a celebration of Irish culture and heritage. The holiday’s popularity has spread far past the Emerald Isle and even beyond the Earth — St Patrick’s Day is also celebrated on the International Space Station. It’s not just

The word Fathom ([n] a measure of depth; [v] to measure, to understand) conveys a lot of ideas that capture important aspects of our brand. Hundreds if not thousands of possible names were floated among the founding partners of the company and most were rejected in less than a second. The names ran out. None of them worked. (Or if they did, they had already been taken.) In the end, a paid third party was required to propose a name

Spending money to flaunt one’s success is nothing new. Indeed, the phrase “conspicuous consumption” was coined over one hundred years ago by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen. Nowadays, these overt displays of wealth and exuberance tend to be referred to as ‘peacocking’. Although a term originally coined to describe the act of attracting a mate with tactics to distinguish oneself from the crowd, it’s now used more generally to describe overt, attention-grabbing behaviour. But the terminology isn’t the only aspect