Cover Page, 04 February 2021, Issue 265 Welcome to our latest edition. This week we lead with a comment on plans for peace in the Middle East, past and present. We also consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership, hedge funds, big spenders, the Spanish flu, jabbees, food for thought, the value of leadership and of course a
4 February 2021 Peace In Our Time In the Middle East by J.R. Thomas Readers are asked to excuse a modest personal reminiscence. In 1979 I realised that I had made a fundamental career misdirection. Surprisingly, my boss concurred, but was kind enough to finance some modest escape arrangements. So with a positive bank balance
4 February 2021 Lies, Damned Lies and Coronavirus Comparisons between COVID-19 and Spanish flu by David Chilvers This week, we look at how the development of COVID-19 compares to that of the Spanish Flu in 1918-19. This worldwide outbreak comprised three waves, the second of which was the worst in terms of mortality. In the
04 February 2021 The Trans-Pacific Tow us round! By Robert Kilconner I always hated geography but maybe that is because I gave it up before O level when my studies had focused on the Canadian tundra; all I can remember about that is that nothing much happens there unless you are unlucky enough to be
04 February 2021 Measure of Value The first jabbees. By John Watson Those who have invested in Gamestop shares* might reflect on Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic as someone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. What is the “value” of a Gamestop share? To the investor who buys it
04 February 2021 Hedge Funds A New Plot Line: Not a conclusion by Frank O’Nomics The executives at Sky Atlantic must be very excited. At last – a plot line to rejuvenate, and potentially conclude, the long running series Billions. The vast sums of money lost by several large hedge funds, following a massive short-squeeze
4 February 2021 Diary of a Corbynista Bad Moon Rising by Don Urquhart 28 January The headline predicted by Corbynista: EU Bureaucrats take Brexit Revenge by stealing our vaccine. Today’s Daily Mail front page came close. No, EU can’t have our jabs! 29 January The day after the UK’s Covid deaths topped 100,000 all of
4 February 2021 The Value of Leadership By Paul Branch And so to the Northern royal progress. After a period of relative peace and calm, Boris found his way to Scotland to see for himself what’s happening there “on the ground”, with vaccine manufacture and jab administration all progressing miraculously smoothly, and to make a
04 February 2021 Hey, Big Spender! It’s in the bag. By Neil Tidmarsh This week the news was awash with the dollars, pounds and euros of big spenders. Three multi-millionaires – an Israeli, an American and a Canadian – have just booked their places on what will be the world’s first private space mission. The
4 February 2021 Food for thought by Peter Carty It comes as little surprise that Deliveroo is set to IPO in the next few months. Its most recent investment round took its value to over $7 billion and the public offering will likely be one London’s largest in recent years. It’s another gig economy success
