Pity the City’s introverts now the Night Tube is here, how will they get out of dreaded work drinks now? August 19, 2016 Hurrah for the almost mythical Night Tube. We’ve known of its existence for nigh on two years, had to wait a year for delays and now, as you’ll already be aware, it will finally come into action tonight. The City is likely to be awash with its usual revellers and more asides, bolstered by the knowledge [...]
Andrea Leadsom quits Conservative leadership race – meaning Michael Gove or Boris Johnson could be back in the running against Theresa May July 11, 2016 Andrea Leadsom has quit the Conservative leadership race and called for Theresa May to be installed as the new Prime Minister. The energy minister announced that she would be leaving the contest by reading a letter she had written to the 1922 Committee, in a press appearance at her front door this afternoon. Leadsom used her [...]
Donald Trump’s unhappy fate is to oversee a financial crisis far worse than the last December 2, 2016 An earthquake doesn’t care if you’re progressive or populist. It destroys your house all the same. Likewise a financial crisis is indifferent to a politician’s policy mix. Systemic crises proceed according to their own dynamic based on the array of agents in a system, and systemic scale. The tempo of recent crises in 1994, 1998, and [...]
The economics of iceberg homes: Are mega-basements just a sunk cost? October 26, 2016 Even if you’re rich, London’s above-ground space limitations and conservation rules can put the kibosh on building your dream home. If you have a vision of putting a swimming pool, cinema or bowling alley in your Georgian terrace, you’ll probably have to think vertically to realise it. Over the last decade, iceberg basements have become [...]
Pride 2016: London march in photos June 25, 2016 Thousands of people from across the world are flooding through London’s streets on the 43rd annual Pride march through the capital. Rainbow flags are being flown across a number of city landmarks, with others list up to celebrate the occasion. Conservative MP and International Development Secretary Justine Greening, also chose today to announce she is in a [...]
Adverts selection: OpenX’s Tim Cadogan and John Murphy on why ad exchanges are a market for lemons and how to improve the quality of traffic September 5, 2016 In the eyes of OpenX, advertising has – or had – a distinctly economic problem. For brands and publishers which trade advertising space programmatically over ad exchanges, information asymmetry and adverse selection are all too common. “It's like a market for lemons”, says John Murphy, vice president of marketplace quality, referencing the famous 1970 paper [...]
“What is Aleppo?” Gary Johnson’s Syria gaffe was bad but also emphasised his integrity September 8, 2016 The presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, candidate for the US Libertarian party, received one of its biggest boosts in this election cycle on Wednesday evening – a tweet from the 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, expressing hope that the Johnson ticket would be allowed to take part in the upcoming presidential debates. The following morning, [...]
Hot Property: Buy a house on an award-winning scheme created by the neighbours of a vacant, rubbish-strewn site in north London June 29, 2016 Everyone walks past an eyesore on their way home from work, but very few people choose to do something about it. But Jake Edgley, an Islington resident who lived next to a vacant site on Godson Street, went further than that; he turned it into an award winning piece of contemporary design and moved his [...]
Iran says it won’t support a production cap as tensions mount ahead of Opec meeting June 2, 2016 Tensions are mounting ahead of today's meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), as Iran and Saudi Arabia look set to battle it out over a proposed new cap on oil production. According to Opec sources, Saudi Arabia will propose a new output ceiling at today's meeting in Vienna, in an attempt to [...]
The polls have closed: EU referendum voting has now ended across the UK – and now the counting begins June 23, 2016 Polling booths across the UK to vote on the country's EU membership have now closed. Both the Remain and Leave camps look to have a long night ahead of them as counting now gets underway. The Electoral Commission has said if you're in line at a polling station at the 10pm cut-off you'll be able to cast [...]