Economics

Sovereign debt default was a lot more common when it was literally sovereigns defaulting. Kings liked money. They didn’t like paying it back. So, quite often, they didn’t. In the richest economies, default has become rare. One of the reasons the Greek financial crisis is dominating headlines and moving markets around the world is the rarity of a rich country failing to pay back the IMF. […]

Which European country tops the sovereign default league table?

What connects Fenland celery with Gruyère cheese? Cornish clotted cream with Prosciutto di Parma? Or Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork and Pizza Napoletana? They have all been granted Protected Geographical Status under EU law through the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) regimes respectively. Some of the most iconic food and drinks produced in the European Union benefit from […]

Protecting the best of British

The economic sanctions placed on North Korea have forced the People’s Republic to develop novel ways to sidestep western technology. Step forward Vinalon, a fabric made from the unlikely source materials of anthracite and limestone? Do rocks make for natural, luxuriant fibres? Not particularly, but the raw materials are plentiful on the Korean peninsula. So why has the rest of the world failed to succumb to […]

Juche couture – North Korea and the fabric of the future

Fordlandia! Where civilisation conquers the wild and untamed heart of the great Amazon rainforest. A city forged in adversity, the triumph of will and the product of the daring imagination of Henry Ford. This is America’s new frontier; a wilderness transformed by technology, labour and innovation into the prosperous hub of the world’s rubber production. To some it was a daring vision, a glimpse of the […]

Fordlandia

Who owns the UK? This is a perennial favourite for newspaper articles and has spawned a series of books. There is no simple answer as wealth can be measured in different ways: cash, shares, GDP and, most tantalisingly of all, land. Land has always been an emotive issue and, even when the vast majority of people no longer work in primary industries, it continues to generate […]

Who owns the UK?

The British £2 is one of the most striking coins in circulation. As well as being the only mainstream bimetallic coin in the UK, it is wider and heavier than any other. With its golden edge and silver centre, it has become the coin of choice to commemorate events, people and institutions of national significance. The current series of the £2 coin was launched on 15 […]

A two pound piece

If you are reading this in the UK, have a look at the change in your pocket. One side features a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II and the other continues the monarchical theme by displaying one of an array of heraldic badges, devices and national icons. Changing over the years, the choice of these designs tells us something of the importance of giving equal weight […]

Coining the home nations

The Great Depression brought misery, poverty and suffering to millions across America. Did it also bring a significant rise in life expectancy and, if so, how? People look towards the camera ravaged by abject poverty and downcast by crushed hopes. It is the Great Depression and America’s urban and rural poor are photographed for newspapers and unwittingly create some of the most iconic images of the […]

The Great Depression’s surprising silver lining

America has gone Mega Millions crazy, with panic buying of lottery tickets and the attention of the world’s media. But the USA is not the only place to have massive jackpots or generous lotteries. El Gordo and El Niño If a Spanish friend asks whether you will be taking part in the ‘fat one’ or the ‘child’, they are hopefully referring to the Spanish state lottery. […]

Prized draws

Chapter eight of the book of Hosea sets out the following stark warning: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” This biblical admonishment is usually interpreted in a metaphorical sense as a warning for those who do evil. In its […]

Black Sunday and the winds that destroyed the west

Yesterday’s Vaguely Interesting article looked at the numismatic phenomenon that is the US 50 State Quarters programme. Whilst it was an unrivalled seigniorage success story, the programme was not without its mishaps, mistakes or unintended consequences. Once a state’s chosen image was minted, it was there for posterity in hundreds of millions, if not billions, of copies. New Hampshire New Hampshire depicted the Old Man of the […]

Striking the wrong note

In 1999 the United States Mint issued the first of its 50 State Quarters. Over the next 10 years, each state in the Union would be showcased on its own shiny quarter dollar coin. The law passsed on 1 December 1997 as United States Commemorative Coin Program Act was controversial, with some officials claiming it marked the ‘Disneyfication’ of US currency. From Delaware to Hawaii, the […]

Coining it in

This week the Sunday Times’s economics editor, David Smith, recorded a fascinating piece for BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House. It is called “If Britain were Greece …”, and imagines the UK under the same financial, economic and social strains currently affecting Greece. The resulting piece is an economic “It Happened Here”, and it paints a bleak and sobering picture. In this nightmarish alternative Britain, unemployment has topped 7 […]

Greek tragedy

New York may be the unofficial capital of the world, but it doesn’t have the highest living costs to match. In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Worldwide Cost of Living Survey New York is only the 47th most expensive place to live out of 131 cities. This year’s priciest place is Zurich, largely thanks to the rising strength of the Swiss Franc. The Swiss financial centre […]

Are Zurich? If not, live somewhere else

I was at a talk this morning on Australian labour practices. As my day job involves employment law, this was not as random as might seem. The speaker was rattling through some of the key differences between UK and Australian employment law and noted that the minimum wage in Australia was AU$15.51 per hour. In the UK the national minimum wage rate currently stands at £6.08 […]

Getting by on Bondi Beach

If they weren’t so easy to hate, it would be difficult not to pity the top 1%. They have become an international scapegoat of the financial crisis, a universal punch bag for the dispossessed, angry and disillusioned. The phrase ‘We Are The 99%’ has become a universal slogan uniting many against a privileged few. But who are the 1%? How should their wealth be measured? By […]