In the late 1970s, the US launched a monetary war on inflation which culminated in the early 1980s with US interest rates peaking at 22 per cent. The Federal Reserve chairman at the time, Paul Volker, had no qualms about destroying the country’s existing manufacturing...
News this week has been dominated by two alpha males who deploy contrasting mechanics to gain power, seeing the world from entirely different angles. Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk might not be an obvious pairing. In many respects they are not. What they share is a...
Two plumbers are sitting in my kitchen, drinking tea, shooting the breeze. They are out the door with work. The sites are buzzing and, according to the lads, there is any number of “small jobs”. But the price of materials is crippling everyone and, even if the client...
Ireland has about five days’ diesel supply in Dublin Port. A few weeks ago, at the start of the war in Ukraine, this dipped to one day. The authorities scrambled to find more, and vital diesel arrived on the unusually named STI Clapham, a tanker from the UK that...
In my parents’ day it was Kilburn, in mine it was Clapham and for my children it’s Hackney. Whether its north, south or east, the move is the same. Despite a booming local economy, record low levels of unemployment, higher wages and career opportunities that were not...
Hemmed in by the Kremlin and the Basilica of St Basil, Red Square comprises the twin powers of contemporary Russia: the government and the Orthodox Church. Despite the religious significance of the cathedral, the square is anchored by the bulky mausoleum of Lenin,...
