The oil price is on a rollercoaster. Having crashed into negative territory just last April, the price of Brent crude climbed all the way to US$70 (£50) earlier in March….Read More >
economics
COVID stamp duty holiday reveals big problems in the housing market
The UK housing market has been affected by the pandemic, but in ways that were not anticipated at the outset. Initially, forecasters thought that the sharp reduction in economic activity…Read More >
Nature: how do you put a price on something that has infinite worth?
There’s a new nature conservation strategy in town – and it means business. During the 1970s, 80s and 90s the main tactic to protect wildlife was to highlight the plight…Read More >
Cocaine: falling coffee prices force Peru’s farmers to cultivate coca
A slump in world coffee prices has pushed farmers in Peru’s central jungle to rip up their plants and replace them with coca leaf – the raw material used in…Read More >
Four-day week: how workplaces can successfully establish it
Many workplaces have been experimenting with different types of flexible working arrangements for years now, but the pandemic has made the need for flexibility far more pressing. This has led…Read More >
Bitcoin: why the price has exploded – and where it goes from here
Bitcoin achieved a remarkable rise in 2020 in spite of many things that would normally make investors wary, including US-China tensions, Brexit and, of course, an international pandemic. From a…Read More >
Why England’s Premier League should bail out the lower leagues
Uncertainty is what makes sports entertaining. If you always knew who was going to win a match, that would be boring. In the 1960s, an economist called Walter Neale said…Read More >
Are women leaders really doing better on coronavirus? The data backs it up
Over the last few months, there has been much discussion of leadership during the pandemic. What constitutes good leadership? Who has performed better and which countries have been worse? One…Read More >
Forget the Premier League, it’s grassroots football that we need to preserve!
The lifeblood of any sport is at its grassroots – the football that is played on local playing fields between teams of all ages, and even sometimes with jumpers for…Read More >
How will football return after this unplanned hiatus?
As many of us fill the void in live sport by watching repeats of the FA Cup Quarter Finals, or dipping into documentaries on Maradona and Sunderland FC on streaming…Read More >