The grumpy older man

In several blogs in recent months I have written about the challenges of the high street (namely in the U.K.), and the current pandemic will not leave our retail premises around the world unscathed. The latest string of retailers going into administration in the UK include restaurant chain Carluccio‘s, rent to own firm Brighthouse, department […]

As a growing number of Europe an countries prepare to lift their lockdown restrictions, it is time to have a look at the economic damage in the wake of the pandemic. And let’s not fool ourselves: it is likely going to be considerable. The OECD Economic growth forecasts provided at the beginning of March make […]

The Coronavirus keeps spreading, and the governments namely in the developed world are seen to take drastically different steps from keeping their population safe. Switzerland has now closed all schools and universities, shops with the exception of grocery stores and supermarkets, all leisure and sport facilities, and all people are advised to leave their homes […]

Swiss, Switzerland‘s national airline is looking to introduce a typical Swiss scent to its planes and check-in desks. But what exactly does Switzerland smell like? There are the obvious candidates such as chocolate and cheese (imagine the smell of Fondue or Raclette on a 15 hour flight to Asia), there is the smell of Swiss […]

As the corona virus spreads around the world and the death toll rises, the varying reactions by the various governments show their differing levels of concern. This goes from President Trumps ‘there’s no problem’ stance to the Swiss authorities ban of public events with more than 1000 attendees, affecting sports events, concerts and the internationally […]

With increasing regularity the British high street hit the headlines over the past few months and years with store closures and retailers going bust. According to the British Retail Consortium, employment on the high street fell for 4 straight years, with some 57‘000 jobs having been lost in 2019. And the new year didn’t get […]

You wouldn‘t necessarily associate Switzerland with the thrills of the clandestine world of secret services and espionage, yet the story that recently broke here is worthy of a John Le Carre story. Crypto AG was (it was split into two separate entities in 2018) a Zug based company which used to sell encryption equipment used […]

Now all those of you who think that this is about the place where you do your weekly grocery shopping, you couldn’t be more wrong! This is about a Chinese banker and his very personal supermarket. A five-episode documentary that apparently recently broadcast on Chinese state television tells the tales of Lai Xiaomin, the former […]