Raghuram Rajan: The central banker trying to save globalisation from itself March 18, 2019 Political and economic debate generally divides around two pillars: markets and state. Free-marketeers see a world where, when people are free to buy and sell according to the laws of supply and demand, business competition naturally drives quality up and prices down, resulting in prosperity and productivity for all. At the other end of the [...]
Metro Exodus review: Back in the USSR, this long-running series hits an incredible high March 6, 2019 Nobody glorifies misery quite like the Russians. Across centuries of literature, poetry and music, some of humanity’s most brilliant minds have elevated the struggles of ordinary Russian men and women to incredible symphonies of suffering. Times of unparalleled political and social upheaval – the Bolshevik revolution, the rise of Leninism, the Stalinist purges, the threat [...]
Banks suffer hundreds of high street closures during 2018 January 31, 2019 Walk-in banks suffered more net closures than any other type of retailer last year, as fast-growing digital rivals lured shoppers away from traditional high street heavyweights. While beleaguered department stores have been stealing the doom-and-gloom headlines for the retail sector in recent months, Britain’s bricks-and-mortar banks saw the greatest retrenchment last year, with some 716 [...]
Confronting the Robots December 13, 2018 Professor Peter Fleming, formerly of Cass Business School, wrote an article for Demos Quarterly which argued that the age of automation is unlikely to lead to a utopian world of play, but doesn't necessarily mean a proliferation of rubbish jobs. You can read the article in full here. Dr Simone Stumpf, Senior Lecturer in the Department of [...]
What went Wronga? Payday lender pays price of poor reputation and rip-off loans August 30, 2018 As recently as five years ago, Wonga was flying high. A £1bn New York listing was on the cards even on a fairly conservative valuation for a firm mentioned in the same breath as tech unicorns – and which even featured as Newcastle United’s shirt sponsor for four years. Yet today the payday lender collapsed [...]
A land of conquest, casinos and copious wine, Georgia is perhaps Europe’s most surprising destination July 5, 2018 It has been said that Georgians ‘think with European minds and feel with Asian hearts’. Their nation, clamped between Russia and Turkey, is neither fully European nor Asian but rather in a category all of its own. If one symbol encapsulates the Georgian psyche it is the Kartlis Deda “Mother of Georgia” statue, which towers [...]
Here are the latest indoor-outdoor furniture trends from the Glastonbury of design festivals, Salone del Mobile June 8, 2018 It might be a fallow year for Glastonbury this year as it takes a break from its hordes of 175,000 revellers – but not so Milan. The world’s greatest design jamboree, Salone del Mobile, attracted more than double Glastonbury’s visitors to its 2018 exhibition pavilions. Imagine the O2, ExCel and Olympia rolled into one, stack [...]
How Gin took over the world: It’s selling in record numbers with little sign of slowing down, but could the bubble be about to burst May 3, 2018 From Dalston dives to The Rivoli at the Ritz, people are drinking juniper-flavoured ethanol in record numbers. Last year more than 50m bottles of gin were sold in the UK for the first time, with £1.2bn in sales, up from £600m in 2011. That’s more than a billion gin and tonics. And while the best-selling [...]
Where is my mind? How an ancient psychedelic ritual in the Oaxaca region of Mexico turned into the trip from hell May 3, 2018 It’s a beautiful day in San Jose Del Pacifico, a small village high in the mountains south of Oaxaca City, southern Mexico, where I’m sitting in front of the world’s most frightening cup of tea. Opposite me is Paolo, a 19-year-old “mushroom guide” in whom I have placed an inordinate amount of trust. Are you [...]
London Fashion Week 2018: Why do brands still hold catwalk shows in a digital age? February 19, 2018 You might be hard-pressed to identify anyone sat on the front row at Mulberry’s spring/summer fashion show last Friday. Once the reserve of top buyers and the fashion press elite, the front row has undergone a revolution in the past decade. Actresses and models sat shoulder to shoulder with a new breed of fashion VIP: [...]