Jan Vlieghe, a member of the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest-rate setting committee recently made a comparison with the UK’s monetary policy and The Weimar Republic. According to his convoluted logic, we …
Will the gold standard return?
Author Archives: Richard
Challenging society’s expectations
Challenging society’s expectations
According to social psychologist Gustave Le Bon: “The Crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual.” We are constantly pressured from the crowd in the form of expectations which are just constructs of the mind. The …
Amazon Prime isn’t worth it
Amazon Prime in the UK is £7.99 per month (£95.88 for the year) or £79 for a one-off payment. There’s a whole bunch of internet posts (all paid for affiliates) describing how Amazon Prime is worth it. So here’s my …
How identity theft happens and how to stop it
I remember when you switched on the news they’d nearly always be a story of a post office or bank that had been robbed at gunpoint. Since moving to a cashless society, those days have gone but it means crime …
3 of life’s biggest lies
3 of life’s biggest lies
Certain topics in life are not to be spoken about, others we’re self-delusional, what’s referred to as cognitive dissonance. Some of these topics are better described as stories. These stories are there to help form …
Goodhart’s law explains why so many people aren’t happy
Goodhart’s law is named after Charles Goodhart, a British economist and former professor at the London School of Economics. Goodhart’s law simply states “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to …
Videos on the economy worth watching while in lockdown
There’s a lot of talk on mainstream TV about a V-shaped financial recovery (when things bounce right back). This feels fanciful IMO. The other options are “U” (like in 2008), “W” and the dreaded “L”. Obviously, no one knows the …
Behavioural changes and trends caused by coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic is a world-shattering event, the biggest of our generation, dwarfing 9/11 or the collapse of Lehman Brothers. With so much uncertainty, one thing is for sure: there will be lasting political, economic, social and technological change. As I …
How to be a landlord
Time needed: 10 minutes.
Using a letting agent will seriously erode your profits especially in a climate with increasing regulation and cost. Moreover, as I have written about previously, letting agents do such a bad job, not only will
There are people who have money and there are people who are rich
World-famous fashion designer and businesswoman Coco Chanel once said: “there are people who have money and there are people who are rich”. Chanel didn’t believe that material wealth was enough to make you rich in life. I’ve known a few …