Business
Free Ports
There has been much welcome talk of a government initiative to nominate free ports in the north & develop a platform for the renaissance of some of the great cities of yesteryear, the cities that [more…]
Business
Business
Allocating public resources to where they do most good
If government has a duty to protect the lives, property and civil liberties of its subjects, ours is currently guilty of failing to display any meaningful police presence on our streets – beyond speeding yellow [more…]
20th Century
Selective Recollection & Economic Reality
Those still shedding tears over our departure from the EU invariably refer to the success of the EU in healing post-WW2 wounds and keeping peace in Europe for 75 years. By the same token they [more…]
15th Century
Disintermediation
My first job was as a graduate trainee for a merchant bank in the City in the late 1980s and among the many buzzwords that the Slick Willies of that profession used to bandy about [more…]
Business
Campaign promises, and a dose of reality
As my regular readers know, most of my essays are forays into challenging economic issues. They reflect my own attempts to gain an understanding of their underlying principles. But there’s a lot riding on the [more…]
19th Century
When Popes Took Coke
The rise and fall of coca wine Coca leaves have been used as a stimulant in South America for over a thousand years, especially in the Andes to overcome the fatigue of living and working [more…]
Business
The Gulf Between Rich & Poor
We are well into the protest season. The long run-up to the election period has been characterised by one protest after another – no-deal Brexit, climate change, arms sales, Tommy Robinson, police brutality, capitalism, Trump’s [more…]
Arts
Bacon Baguettes & Round Laces
My old chum Carruthers came to stay last week, he works for a major airline & has seen plenty of the world in the last forty years, as indeed I have myself. We somehow got [more…]
Business
Every Folly Has Its Consequences
The great Spanish master, Francisco Goya, expressed it concisely: “The sleep of reason produces monsters”. Today, wherever you look, insanity masquerades as rational thought. Lunatics flout their blatantly potty views as if they carried the [more…]