Thank Fathom it's Friday Archives - Fathom Consulting: Recent Episodes
Fathom Consulting
It’s rare that a politician comes to power without being bound by some kind of manifesto. And yet, that’s exactly the position that the UK’s latest PM, Andy Burnham, finds himself in. Some may say that puts him in a bad position and that he lacks a mandate for change. For what it’s worth, I
The post If I were PM, I’d scrap the triple lock appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
John Maynard Keynes’ acerbic remark that “…in the long run, we’re all dead” resonates because it is true, [1] and because it rightly draws attention to the here and now rather than some uncertain and distant possible future. But it has encouraged some commentators to dismiss long-term considerations as altogether irrelevant. I’m ready to bet Keynes
The post Why the economic fundamentals still apply appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Saudi Arabia is an oil economy that wants to maximise the value of its oil wealth while diversifying away from oil; seeking employment opportunities for a cohort of young Saudi nationals when most jobs have usually gone to immigrant labour; governed by a highly traditional, patriarchal political elite that wants to modernise without changing its
The post Saudi Arabia: alive with contradictions appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The best scene in the award-winning South Korean film Parasite sees rainwater washing the expensive houses high on the hill before sluicing down through ever-lower levels of the city, collecting detritus all the way. Finally it reaches a filthy, toxic sump in the basement where the family at the centre of the action live. If
The post Korea in the melting pot appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
When I was at university we dealt very little with Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. Our courses focused instead on its theoretical counterpart, Y (economic shorthand for output or income). Y is a solid foundational bedrock; GDP is not. Rather, it’s a number that changes based on how you measure it; which is regularly revised
The post GDP: one size does not fit all appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
From walking into the office on my first day to entering the final weeks of my year-long placement here, there has been one constant in the Fathom office: and that is Andrew Harris asking if you want to grab lunch. What seems at first like a trivial question quickly becomes more complicated when you are
The post A year in lunches appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
If you’ve attempted to buy a ticket to see your favourite artist live in the last few years, you’ll know that you’ll have to navigate the infamous ‘Ticketmaster war’. This highly competitive online scramble to beat the bots and the other fans to the ticket you want usually ends with you forking out considerably more
The post Why we buy expensive concert tickets appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Many of my friends and family were surprised when I told them a year ago that I'd be working in an economics consultancy. “I thought you wanted to do something creative?” was the usual response. Fair point - and honestly, the same question crossed my mind. How would I find my place in a company
The post The value of creativity appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The Japanese term ‘Kaizen’ has been co-opted by Western management consultants and lifestyle gurus, and is taken to mean a culture of continual improvement: tiny, incremental changes, day after day that, after a long period, mean success. I vividly remember being shown around a Japanese-owned factory in the UK, where the management had recently presented
The post What’s happening in Japan? Kaizen it ain’t. appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Today’s blog is something a little different – I’m sharing the video version of our latest special edition podcast episode on AI and US-China techno-economic competition. Last month I caught up with David Lin from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) at the 2026 SCSP AI+ Expo in Washington DC. We’ve known each other for
The post The role of AI in techno-economic competition appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.” This is one of my favorite aphorisms, and that’s because I’ve seen examples of it in action in so many different areas of life. Across the sports we love, I’m sure we can all think of a player who took the world by storm but eventually
The post Talent, hard work and Dutch Disease appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
In Salman Rushdie’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories, we are introduced to the concept of the P2C2E. How does a magic carpet actually fly? It’s a P2C2E. When you say there’s a genie trapped in that lamp, how does that actually, mechanically, happen? Another P2C2E.[1] It’s a bit like the ‘flux capacitor’ in
The post What’s a P2C2E? appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I have a confession: I used to be a gold bear. I was sceptical about gold’s soaring price around 15 years ago, when advanced economy central banks launched quantitative easing and gold rose to almost $2000. Investors were betting that this might cause inflation. I struggled to see the appeal of the yellow metal — it
The post All that glitters appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
‘MAN + VAN’ read the sign. ‘Cheap removals, Garden Waste, Student Moves, Gumtree Ebay/IKEA Pick up’. Phone number. This was my man, I thought, my Ford Transit driver in shining armour. My man with a van. I dialled the number, hope welling up. But alas… “£100 for the hour, plus petrol, and a little extra
The post Men with ven appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Economic data are hard to measure. In most cases, we know what we’re looking for — inflation reflects changes in the average price level, GDP is a measure of domestic goods and services production, and unemployment counts the number of people who can’t find a job. For these indicators, the problem is often the resources
The post Domain hacking appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
My partner Tom often accuses me of what he calls my ‘Scandinavian supremacy’, essentially that I think most things Scandi are superior to their UK or other counterparts. I, of course, find this an unfair accusation as it is simply factual that Norway has better washing up liquid (Zalo), superior suncream to everyone but the
The post Election costs appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
From the moment we’re born, we are all compelled to enter the lottery of life. We have no choice in the matter. We don’t pick our parents, our genetics, or where we grow up. We’re simply dropped into the middle of what I call the “statistical soup of life”— a messy, unpredictable concoction of luck,
The post Life’s statistical soup appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
It is strange what a difference one small, apparently insignificant change to the way things are measured can make to an overall finding. This realisation came home to me when I was reading about the resident doctors’ pay grievance. The resident doctors have a clear narrative about the way their pay has been eroded. Their
The post Alternative facts appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
In much of Europe, mid-August is when the tempo drops. Offices empty, emails slow to a trickle, and for a few languid days you can drive across Rome or Paris with barely a touch on the brake. The workers’ day off on 15 August — or Ferragosto, to give it its Latin name — is
The post The August liquidity siesta appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
On the Monday just passed, I was faced with one of my pet peeves. As part of my ongoing effort to explore the less-pricey offerings that London has on offer, I hopped on the tube to Canary Wharf to explore the Canary Roof Palace Gardens for the first time, having enjoyed the Barbican Conservatory a
The post Cognitive dissonance on the escalator appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I have just returned from ten days in Gozo, an island off Malta, the supposed location of Calypso’s cave, in which Odysseus was imprisoned for seven long years on his journey home from Troy all that time ago. The island is small – you could drive the perimeter, if there were no traffic, in perhaps
The post Reflections from a very small island appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”, Niels Bohr[1] The future is hard to predict and the sensible thing would simply be to live in the present. But even so I often cannot help but wish for an omniscient crystal ball. If I go left will I collide and spill coffee down
The post Forecasting forecasting appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
At night, as I ponder the issues that concern me most, from climate breakdown to the substrate that will work best in my new fish tank, my thoughts are interrupted by the piercing silence of no crying baby. This, I believe, is the result of the sleep training routine I recently introduced for my eleven-month-old
The post The economic value of sleep training kids appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
There is a contagion spreading around London, infecting commuters from all walks of life. These gyrating duplet organisms vary in size, shape and colour and are replicating in variants of greater and greater wattage. Once contaminated, a symbiotic relationship is formed… I am speaking of course about bicycles. Transport for London (TfL)[1] estimates that
The post Cycle-cal trends in commuting appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Healthy debate is strongly encouraged at Fathom. The house view on major economic, geopolitical and financial issues is not determined from the top down; rather, it is the reflection of hours of internal discussion, analysis and research, conducted by the team. A recent note on Chinese equity prices caused quite a stir internally and, as
The post Building the house view appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Renowned economist, Alex Edmans, recently presented to Fathom on the topic of ‘bias in data’. One example cited a study that claimed ‘breastfeeding leads to more intelligent babies’. Delving further into the study, mothers with higher education and more supportive home environments were more likely to breastfeed, meaning that the correlation could be due to
The post Blue Zone bias appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I recently read in the news that current US presidential candidate Kamala Harris is flirting with the idea of introducing a ban on ‘corporate price gouging’, in relation to food suppliers and grocery stores. As an economist, and the proud son of a father who has worked in the food business for more than thirty
The post The terrible idea of price controls appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Owning and using a private jet has long been the status symbol of the elite in our society, from prominent celebrities to the most successful CEOs. Not many can deny that one of the primary reasons to fly a private jet is simply because they can. When I was asked to write a post for
The post The true cost of private jets appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Given recent passionate debates by colleagues Erik and Elisabeth about economic models and ’rational man‘ — homo economicus — how could I pass up this opportunity, on Friday the 13th, to write about empirical economic evidence for superstitions? Friggatriskaidekaphobia, or the fear of Friday the 13th, has proved to be a persistent Western superstition, rooted
The post The metaphysics of investing on Friday the 13th appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Coffee drinking is taking over the world. Even in the UK, the home of ‘afternoon tea’, coffee is now the most popular drink. That would make someone like me, who considers coffee an indulgence as much as a means to remain alert, happy. But I am not. Coffee can be served both in hot and
The post Solving the iced coffee conundrum appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
We've all hit that afternoon slump, when the clock seems to slow down and every task feels like a mountain. It's in these moments that the idea of taking a break starts to sound not just appealing but necessary. As work environments change, especially with remote working, finding the right balance in how we take
The post When to take a chill pill appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
[As told to Erik Britton] It has come to my attention that some self-styled ‘economists’ are of the opinion that I am redundant. That I, Homo economicus, the embodiment of economic rationalism, have served my purpose, if indeed I was ever fit for that purpose. That positive economics, a branch of positive science which I
The post Homo economicus strikes back appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The streets of Paris appeared to be free from locals last week. That’s not necessarily unusual in August. The French are famous for enjoying Les Grandes Vacances with extended trips out of the city. But this year, there was the added factor of the Olympics: with concerns about expensive ticket prices, packed transport and even
The post Marchand, Marchand! appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I frequently moan about low levels of investment in the UK. It has become a bugbear of mine. Looking across the whole of the G7, the UK has had the lowest investment-to-GDP-ratio in 28 of the past 42 years. And on those odd occasions when it has not been bottom of the G7 investment league
The post Patience may be a virtue, but it isn’t everything appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
‘“When the rockets go up, who cares where they come down, That’s not my department,” said Wernher von Braun.’ [1] These lyrics from the US mathematician and satirist Tom Lehrer’s highly amusing song may not immediately get you thinking of economics, but there are similarities between the disinterested mental shrug given by Lehrer’s von Braun
The post Value judgement appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The Fathom team is just back from our annual getaway, which we spent in Hinwick House – a stately home on the Northants/Bedfordshire border that offers a mish-mash of 18th-century architecture, antique memorabilia of various vintages, stuffed animals, expensive-looking silverware and vases, an in-tune grand piano, and a truly surprising number of bugles in all
The post And the winner of the best decade is… appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
It's not easy to write a coherent blog post in 39 degrees. The heat sends my mind wandering, jumping between the needs of physical hydration and vaporising ideas, resurfacing deeper reflections and vulnerabilities. One slightly contorted train of thought, however, keeps recurring. Summer has always been a period of socialisation, bringing anxiety about changing social
The post Ms Market appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
For those who aren’t familiar, at Thinks and Drinks Fathom invites friends and clients to join us at a bar to socialise and discuss issues shaping the economy. Towards the end, there were three of us left with an already opened bottle of wine, and we were faced with the decision of whether to go
The post ‘Thinks and Drinks’ and the sunk cost fallacy appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The invitation from my dear friend Arnaud — tireless partner during my Poland adventures — to his second residence in Corsica was too good to be rejected. Not only because I really needed a vacation after some turbulent weeks personally, but also due to the irresistible appeal of visiting a place that, although close geographically,
The post A tribute to ‘the most sublime’ appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Have you ever told a friend you loved their new haircut when, in reality, you didn't? Or perhaps you've excused yourself from a social event by claiming you had a prior commitment? Let’s face it, we all tell the occasional fib. Lying, it seems, is an integral part of human interaction: in fact, research suggests
The post The truth about lies appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
It is exactly a year since we were handed the keys to our first house, and my main memory of the last twelve months is the do-it-yourself spree than ensued. I must confess that I was never much of a DIY type, and sometimes I miss the days of renting when worrying about something that
The post DIY obsession appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Penalty shootouts have haunted English football fans for years. Since 1990, England have been involved in nine shootouts across the European Championship and World Cup competitions and won only two of them: a dismal record for what is supposed to be a premier footballing nation. An estimated 31 million people in the UK tuned in
The post Shoot down the middle appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I’ve been told I can be very competitive. Having grown up with three siblings, I wouldn’t disagree. Last weekend however I more than met my match while playing a board game with my future in-laws. While I managed to clinch a victory, it was a little too close for comfort. So here I am, unashamedly
The post How to defeat your in-laws appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Back in 2016, my inaugural Thank Fathom It’s Friday covered an upcoming election. In a year of shock results, the piece focused on countries where political results were set in stone. Using South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) as an example, it looked at the enduring political success of parties that led their country to
The post Independence play revisited appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
It’s always fun to mock politicians. So, when I saw UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announce his ambitions for the UK to possess a one-trillion-dollar homegrown company within ten years, I thought another opportunity was coming my way. But then I started imagining whether it was actually possible… Unsurprisingly, in turns out that there’s a positive
The post A trillion-dollar dream appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I enjoyed reading my colleague Elisabeth’s blog post, published last Friday, in which she quotes the former Norwegian Prime Minster, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who once declared: “It’s typically Norwegian to be good”. This got me thinking: what are we Brits good at? Many things, I hear you cry. To which I would specifically add: winning Olympic
The post Going for gold (again)! appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
“Its typically Norwegian to be good” is the somewhat awkward direct translation of a quote from Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Norwegian prime minister. ‘Good’ in this case should be read in the same way as ‘being good at something’ rather than being especially moral.[1] Brundtland originally made this remark in her 1992 New Year’s Eve
The post Luck of the Norwegian appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Stereotypes fascinate me: their origin, their motives, their many exceptions and the strong emotions they elicit. Let's embrace some controversy and dive straight into a few. Consider stereotypes about men having better spatial awareness or being better drivers than women. It's easy to find references either disproving or supporting these old chestnuts. Women have lower
The post The conspiracy paradox appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I often wonder why people vote in the way they do. Are they voting in what they perceive to be their own best interests, or in the wider interests of society as a whole? Indeed, why do we vote at all? Is democracy the best form of government? On the question of why we vote
The post Three cheers for democracy appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I recently travelled to Seoul to visit a friend who is doing her master’s there. The trip was a good mix of learning about South Korean history and culture through visiting temples and museums, and consuming barbecue (and a fair amount of soju, a rice spirit rather like vodka). One of the most interesting parts
The post Korea’s jeonse housing bubble is bursting appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
My dad occasionally likes to gift me books that serve a double purpose. So when he spotted one that covered both my work and my passion for cooking, he thought, ‘Bingo!’ And so to Edible Economics: The World in 17 Dishes, where author Ha-Joon Chang, a professor at SOAS University of London, aims to make
The post Chewing over some food economics appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
After having managed to pull off a very successful year at Fathom Consulting, I came to the conclusion that I deserved to treat myself to a nice watch that could complement my ‘out of consensus’ dress style. This experience has been much more interesting than I could possibly have imagined, and I feel an overwhelming
The post Watch hunting appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
‘Christmas in the city and Easter in the village’ is the most probable response from a middle-aged Greek when asked about their plans for Easter (or indeed Christmas). It may seem boring to have the same plan year in, year out, but the truth of the matter is that you never change a winning combination.
The post A child’s Easter in Greece appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Seeing the fearless 16-year-old Luke ‘the Nuke’ Littler reach the Darts World Championship final earlier this year reminded me of my own darts performance under pressure. It wasn’t quite the same, I guess. For one thing, he wasn’t dressed as a cowboy on an inflatable horse. Littler coped extremely well under pressure, but not all
The post His palms are sweaty… appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
As a tired father of two I thought it might be fun to calculate a monetary value that could convince me to try to have a third child (or, more accurately, convince me to attempt to convince my wife to try). The figure: £15,669,144,525. 4 years of nursery: £105,600 (£2200 per month x 48) 18
The post Financing the kids appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
With eight months until election day, Donald Trump is favourite to be the next US president. A lot can change, but current polls suggest voters remain upset with Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and concerned by his age. What would a second Trump term bring? Fathom’s base case is that some of his more
The post Who should fear Donald Dark? appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
As a child, I remember flicking through the children’s encyclopӕdia my parents had bought for us. Although it was likely bought as an attempt to give them respite from the endless questions the three of us had, it encouraged us to find the answers for ourselves. Fast forward a couple of decades and I can
The post Information overload appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Lying on a lounger in the shade on a beach in Antigua, glass of piña colada in hand, a good book dog-eared on the table next to me, looking at the turquoise and ultramarine sea and the pale gold sand, the white nicks of sails on the horizon, watching a squadron of pelicans skimming the
The post This island paradise appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Formula One’s global popularity is undeniable. With the cumulative TV audience peaking at 1.55 billion over the course of the 2021 season, it is no surprise that the premium motorsport has become a multi-billion-dollar business, bringing in fans from all corners of the world. Forbes estimates the total value of all ten racing teams to
The post Decarbonising Formula One appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I’m not a big football fan, though I do follow Brighton, to a degree. They are my local team, and back in the early 1980s, my dad used to take me to watch the odd game at the old Goldstone Ground — now a retail park. I also take a passing interest in statistics. It’s
The post We are Brighton, super (unpredictable) Brighton appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending day three of the final Ashes test match at the Oval. The sun was out, the conversation was flowing and the cricket was good. The only problem was the price of the beer (or cooking lager, as some describe it) — at £7.60, the venue’s offering is
The post Beer money appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Back in 2018, I started my first work experience at a large Spanish insurance company. One day, a group of outsiders came to our floor to lead a conference about new ways of working. I will never forget the moment the presenter approached me and a colleague, both impeccably dressed in our smartest suits, looked
The post The inexorable fall of the suit appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
During a recent birthday trip to County Mayo, I spent an afternoon in McDonnell’s. The locals know it as ‘The Lobster Pot’, given the difficulties some face in leaving once inside. Newcomers are shaken by the hand and welcomed to Belmullet by Padraig, the affable owner, and the regulars ensure no-one stays a stranger for
The post Irish pub appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The world of economics and finance runs on equations, models, statistics, backtests and predictive analytics. It seeks out objective causal relationships that can be quantified and verified. The mantra “correlation does not imply causation” has been drilled into my head from an early stage. One of my first memories from undergraduate studies is learning about
The post Maple syrup-flavoured synchronicity appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I recently went back to my hometown in Norway on holiday. Growing up in a country which is relatively cold, you’re not guaranteed warm weather for any length of time, so you need some other focus for the summer. For me and for most of my friends back home, the definition of summer is: strawberry
The post The taste of summer appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The weather was great when I was last home and we enjoyed a couple of lovely family . You won’t know this, of course, but my dad considers himself quite the expert at the barbecue — as all dads do! That’s why he’s incredibly fussy about allowing his steaks a decent amount of time to
The post Cathedral thinking appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
If, like me, you follow coverage of the war in Ukraine closely but aren’t an expert on Sino-Russian relations or a historian, you probably think Russia and China are best friends. After all, the bromance between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping has ‘no limits’, or so we are led to believe. I’ve grown to accept
The post Russia, China and their no limits friendship appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The past seven months have been busy for me on a personal level. My partner and I finally got married at the end of last year, and having just completed the purchase of our first home we are imminently expecting our first child. Within this frenzy, I celebrated my 37th birthday, which naturally was overshadowed
The post Life’s milestones appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I'm on the brink of a move to the US, prompting some reflections amidst the packing. I've made a number of moves before — the first as a child from the North of England to Ireland, the place I now firmly call home. Relocations can be motivated by lifestyle preferences, career objectives, family life and,
The post Feathers on the ocean breeze appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
In Stephen Leacock’s short story 'Q: a psychic pstory of the psupernatural', a character called Annerly reports that an acquaintance he refers to as ‘Q’ experienced the following manifestation of his dog: “Well, then, the projection, or phanogram, of the dog passed in front of them so plainly that Miss M swore that she could
The post Of cats and dogs appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
How wealthy is Elon Musk? ‘Very’ would usually suffice, but to be more precise his net worth is somewhere around an eyewatering $200 billion. We can all agree that this is a lot, and probably don’t feel we need to waste an unnecessary amount of time trying to grasp its true magnitude. But put it
The post The mystery of magnitude appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I have not worked a five-day week since April. Yes, really! Between a few days of annual leave and the alarming number of public holidays that we had last month, it’s been a while. But could this amount of leisure soon be the new normal? Writing in 1930, John Maynard Keynes famously hypothesised that we
The post More leisure, please appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
On a recent trip to Northern Ireland with my fellow Fathomites Ingrid and Ellen, we went on a hike to the Giant’s Causeway. It is a unique formation of rocks, tall hexagons of stone towering over the water at the very top of Northern Ireland, with beautiful green hills surrounding it giving the landscape a
The post Awe inspiring appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
In a capitalist system, is competition in the market always doomed to suffer a slow death? This sort of question takes on fresh urgency during economically challenging times, when ordinary people tend to struggle while giant corporations sail on regardless. I have attempted to strike a balance in my answer, but no matter how hard
The post The death of competition appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Banking crisis. Inflation. War. There are reasons to be gloomy. When it comes to the economy, however, the killjoys seem to hold too much sway right now. Yes, the COVID recession was severe. But it was also incredibly short, and the recovery has been much swifter than many expected. Since then, inflation has been high,
The post The vibes are sus appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Are you one of those people who absolutely hates shopping? Or are you spending as much on therapy to deal with your shopping addiction as you are on the latest designer brands? Either way, you're not alone. According to, one study, around 1 in 5 US consumers feels stressed when going shopping, while more than
The post What is in a name? appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Early on 31 December 2020 the two biggest alliances in the known universe began the largest and bloodiest battle ever witnessed. The Imperium had managed to damage a key component of the PAPI Coalition’s military strategy: a Cyno Jammer, with the function of blocking warp gates, the technology through which entire fleets are able to
The post Intergalactic economics appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Since I moved to London, I’ve noticed planes flying over my head quite regularly. Probably most Londoners pay no attention to it, but I guess the aerophobia I’ve always suffered from makes me especially aware of their presence. Inspired by this, I decided to look at some statistics for London airspace. Could this data also
The post Cabin crew, ready for take-off appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The first time I attended a baseball match was in 2006 in Philadelphia. I was living there at the time and wanted to absorb some of the culture. Since I was ignorant of the rules, not to mention the (apparently infinite) subtleties of the game, I got chatting to the bloke sat next to me
The post Only connect appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
When my name appears on our Friday blog rota, I feel both excited and a little anxious. Excited, because it means I can investigate a new, interesting, topic and share my findings with you. Nervous, because at the outset it isn’t always clear how interesting or stimulating that topic might be, how long the research
The post Replacing myself with a chatbot appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
On a cold, damp Saturday late last month I went to see Suede in concert at the De La Warr Pavilion — a beautiful example of Modernist architecture built next to the beach in Bexhill-on-Sea. Located on the Sussex coast, part way between Eastbourne and Hastings, the town’s revenues from tourism are not what they
The post By the Sea appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Last weekend, I visited the Natural History Museum. It was as impressive as I remember from the last time I went, on a family holiday from Norway when I was about ten. I must admit that I was almost as excited to see the dinosaur skeletons as the five-year old on the front row wearing
The post Free museum entry appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Vienna’s famous Der Wiener Deewan restaurant was opened in 2005 by Afzaal Deewan, an asylum-seeker from Pakistan. When he first arrived in Vienna he missed the taste of food from home, and would visit Asian restaurants around the city, but he found them very expensive. It wasn’t until he met Natalie — then a student,
The post A free lunch? appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Visiting Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in Canada this year, I was introduced to the concept of a multi-resort pass: a whole-season ski pass you can use at many resorts across different continents, as opposed to one that would only cover a specific resort or area. Having previously only ever skied in Europe, it got me
The post Snow business appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
England’s two most decorated football clubs renewed their rivalry last Sunday, with Manchester United suffering a defeat of humbling proportions to Liverpool. This United fan has had dodgy oysters that were easier to stomach than conceding seven at Anfield. While these two historic clubs are not at the summit of the Premier League this season,
The post Premier League vs productivity appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
The view from my office window has recently seen the addition of another crane. This latest arrival is now the fifth that occupies my view of the Leeds skyline. Exciting, right? Don’t worry, I can promise you I don’t like cranes enough to write a whole blog on them. But stay with me, as they
The post Crane spotting appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
I was walking around Angel a few weeks ago when I came across a display of books outside a store, with a sign saying, “Blind date with a book”. The books were individually wrapped in brown paper, and the only thing differentiating them was a few words of description, printed in black. “Lost and found.
The post The appeal of a blind date appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
For the many people who feel the need to splash out on flowers, chocolate, dinner, and everything else that comes along with Valentine’s Day, it must feel like an obvious conclusion that the holiday was devised by marketing gurus. Holidays like these are surrounded by little conspiracy theories: St. Patrick's Day has been plotted by
The post A cynic’s guide to Valentine’s Day appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Cricket is more popular than football. Yes, you heard me right. According to the Google Trends review of 2022, ‘England vs India’ was searched for more often than ‘FIFA World Cup’. Indeed, Indian cricket takes up four of the top ten most popular searches! Wordle was top (of course), but not a single economics term
The post Recession? Ask Google appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
500g of beef shekla tibs[1]: 450 birr 4 beers: 150 birr Total: 600 birr At official exchange rate: $11 US At parallel exchange rate: $6 US The restaurants of Addis Ababa fill up at the end of each year, with conversations switching between American-accented Amharic and English. A combination of domestic and international holidays, and
The post Parallel exchange rates appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
After two years living in charming Kraków, I decided it was time for a change. A few options were on the table, but London stood out thanks to its astonishing historical architecture, rich cultural offer, endless leisure activities and cosmopolitan environment. Finally, as an economist I couldn’t resist the appeal of working in one of
The post London calling appeared first on Fathom Consulting.
Is there any three-letter acronym that gets bandied around as much, is as poorly understood, and annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum as much as ESG? In today’s blog I explain the problems with grouping an ill-defined mass of hard-to-measure environmental, social and governance factors into a single score. Some of the
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As I was doing my daily chores whilst at home in Norway during Christmas, I started thinking about the interesting way that Norway incentivises the recycling of plastic bottles and metal cans. This includes donating to the Red Cross with a very small chance of winning up to 1,000,000 kroner.[1] Continue reading if you would
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I made my final ever New Year's resolution the other week — never to talk or speak about New Year’s resolutions again. So, for the first Thank Fathom it’s Friday blog of the year, it looked like I might be in a spot of bother finding a topical subject. But then I noticed the publication
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I recently attended my best friend’s wedding in County Sligo and, in an effort to elevate my otherwise fairly low-brow speech, included a line from WB Yeats, who adored that part of the world. Given that Yeats’ poetry is predominantly about the frustrations of unrequited love and patriotism, I had to hunt through his work
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“We have two classes of forecasters: those who don't know . . . and those who don't know they don't know.” John Kenneth Galbraith My colleagues and I have held a series of meetings with clients over the past few weeks to present and discuss our latest assessment of the global macroeconomic and financial market
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Last week marked my fifth Fathom anniversary, a milestone that passed largely unnoticed in a very busy end of year. Over this period my Fathom inbox has accumulated 14,337 emails, of which 4185 seem to have remained unread (I do receive a lot of junk). Over the past five years, I’ve received emails from 507
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A few weeks ago, UK scientists reported that they had given laboratory-grown blood to humans for the first time ever. Their clinical trial is aimed at boosting the supply of very rare blood types, and helping those suffering from blood conditions such as sickle cell anaemia. Amazing, right? But it also got me thinking about
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We live in difficult times, with our economies under pressure, inflation high, and ongoing wars pushing up the number of refugees. Amid all these stresses, people are losing faith in political institutions — democracy itself is under challenge from populism. My aim in this blog is to refresh our memory about why democracy is good
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How do you know someone has run a marathon? They will write a blog about it — twice, in my case. I made my way around Dublin last Sunday, committing the original sin of marathons of going out too fast in the first half and then ‘bonking’[1] by the end. Some, including Pheidippides, might argue
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The term ‘bucket list’ was popularised by a 2000s film of the same name. For those who don’t know, the term is often used to describe a list of things that you intend to complete before you ‘kick the bucket’. I don’t have a bucket list. That said, one thing I’ve always been keen to
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Growing up in the North-West of England has given me a long-held interest in developments in the manufacturing industry. Lancashire used to be the global leader in the production of cotton in the nineteenth century, accounting for a third of global output.[1] Apparently its damp climate, was ideally suited to this as it made the
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‘How do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?’ – George Orwell, 1984 How do we know that
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I don’t know about you, and call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I do not like paying tax. It hurts. When I look at the tax bite out of my salary, I wince. When I think about the VAT I pay out of post-tax income, I grumble. When I reflect on the corporation
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What makes people happy? I’m not looking for anything particularly profound here. I mean, what kind of macroeconomic backdrop provides people with a sense of wellbeing? With UK consumer confidence at an all-time low, the drivers of happiness seem a particularly relevant topic. Inflation is at multi-decade highs, and people tend not to like rapidly
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I once read an anecdote about a young Pablo Picasso in which he was several months behind on his rent. The landlord came by and told him that if he didn’t come up with the money he’d be evicted on Tuesday. But Picasso exclaimed, “Before you kick me out, just think, years from now people
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This summer marked a personal watershed as I packed up my home in London and moved back to Rome. It’s a homecoming that has been more than a year in the making, and increasingly resembles one of my family’s favourite movies, The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, a cult animation from the 1970s. Comparing my progress
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Throughout history there have always been observations humans can’t explain. In the ancient world, unexplainable events were often attributed to the all-encompassing brush of 'fate'. The Roman goddess Fortuna, goddess of luck and fate, was often depicted standing on a ball, indicating her uncertainty, and blindfolded to show her lack of bias. Romans could conveniently
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I rarely come across anyone who doesn’t know some part of this story. For some, it's the cunning trick that brought an unnecessary war to an end. Others will talk about the lost man, who cleverly won the war but now can’t get home. Still others remember the faithful woman who waits for him, staving
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Everyone loves a rogue. Think Han Solo in Star Wars, Jack in Titanic, Hilts in The Great Escape, and the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist. And the popularity of silver screen rogues hasn’t gone unnoticed in the world of politics, where in recent years we’ve seen comedian Beppe Grillo, leather-clad Yannis Varoufakis and scruffy-haired Boris
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Smallest violin in the world alert: delayed planning and pent-up demand from other would-be travellers meant that I faced a potentially eyewatering cost to spend a week by the Mediterranean. With flights to Italy coming in at $1000, car rental at $2000 and Airbnb at $3000, I opted instead for a staycation in London. This
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Nine of the Fathom team (myself included) recently spent the best part of a week at Brantrake House in the Lake District, discussing our strategy (after the COVID-induced pause) for Fathom USA. We spent a day at High Ground Farm on Birker Moor where we learned how to move a huge pile of wood, how
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Tired of paying extortionate exchange commission on foreign currency when you go on holiday? Annoyed that there is nothing you can do about it? Read on to understand how and why the Bureau de Change does it to us. It might help ease the pain. Changing money is the ultimate holiday challenge. What currency do
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