For a relaxing retreat without the airport ordeal, give the Lakes a go December 9, 2012 IF YOU look out the window, there is a good chance it’s raining. Unless you’re on the underground, in which case it will just be inky blackness, endlessly rushing by. Anyway, the point is, the weather is bad at the moment, so taking a holiday in the Lake District might not seem like the most [...]
Black Swan author challenges the belief that pressure is bad for the economy December 6, 2012 BANKS should be more like cats than washing machines. So suggests Nassim Taleb, ex-trader and controversial author of The Black Swan, who has a new book out in time for Christmas. What he means is that living things – cats, economists, bankers – display a property that even our best-designed machinery lacks: a quality that [...]
The new VW 4×4 is practical but dull December 4, 2012 Audi’s A6 Allroad may be the default choice for Europe’s wealthiest equestrians but the new VW Passat Alltrack is more of a four-wheel-drive estate for the rest of us. This then is the people’s version of a car that, theoretically, nobody needs. With so many choices of SUV out there that are just as roomy [...]
1776 is old-fashioned City and it’s all the better for it December 3, 2012 RESTAURANT 1776 1 Lombard Street, EC3V 9AA Tel: 020 7929 6611 FOOD **** VALUE *** ATMOSPHERE *** Cost per person without wine: £55 ONE LOMBARD Street is one of those archetypal City restaurants – like the Mercer – that you go because you work in the City and, you know, that’s just what you do. [...]
Ditch the tired old turkey this Christmas December 3, 2012 Head chef, Paternoster Chop House Call me an old Scrooge but the thought of eating turkey at Christmas fills me with dread. I know I’m in the minority here but I find it dry and tasteless, even if turkeys have come on a lot in recent years (more succulent birds include black or bronze turkeys). [...]
Should we be worried that zombie firms will worsen the effects of the recession? November 29, 2012 YES Jon Moulton We should be afraid of zombie companies that eat away at good assets and valuable finance. Allowing bad business models to persist spurns one of the very few positive effects of a recession: clearing out the economically unproductive companies to make way for strong, innovative ones. Forbearance is a nice phrase, but [...]
Find sanctuary from the Indian bustle November 25, 2012 ENSCONCED in a luxury yoga hotel in the Himalayas, or in a resort matrix like Goa, you might just be able to avoid the clanging, overwhelming reality of India as you go about your daily business. Not in the cities. No matter how luxurious your hotel, enclave, or colony (as certain leafy districts are known), [...]
London tech bank sets up in California November 19, 2012 A BRITISH technology investment bank is today announcing plans to set up in California in a bid to benefit from the fast-growing firms in Silicon Valley. In a rare UK export to Silicon Valley, London-based Torch Partners, which focuses on high-growth companies in the tech, media and telecoms sectors, is set to set up in [...]
Why forgoing veal is now the real unethical choice November 19, 2012 The widespread view that eating veal is unethical is well-founded and well-meaning but out of date. You can, though, see where it comes from. Even as a chef and lifelong meat eater who generally tries not to feel too sentimental about using animals for food (as long as they have had good lives, been well-treated [...]
Guard yourself against the dangers of biting inflation November 18, 2012 INFLATION is a silent thief that can rob the value of your investment capital. The consumer price index rose by 2.7 per cent in the year to October, up from 2.2 per cent in September. Though some argue that it will come down again, it has overshot the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target [...]