A Finnish study earlier this year examined the correlation of expensive cars and their owners. It’s authors started on the premise that drivers of expensive makes are more prone than others to jump a red light and in general be more reckless drivers. Previous research had apparently shown that money corrupts, in the sense that […]
A Swiss spy story (take 2)
You may have heard about one of the biggest spy stories in recent times, involving a Swiss manufacturer of encryption equipment sold to governments around the world. When the story broke in February, it was revealed that the Swiss company was in fact owned and controlled by the CIA and the BND, Germany’s spy agency […]
A tale of two crises
While Britain is slowly recovering from the Covid crisis, and, I hasten to say, at a slower pace than many of its European neighbours, another crisis already lurks around the corner: Brexit. Let me be quite clear about this: the British government has never been keen on an extension of the transition period beyond December […]
Burger wars
If you like a juicy burger, you may find this story appetising: A Den Haag court has recently ruled that the food giant Nestlé has named it’s ‘incredible’ burger deliberately for consumers to confound it with the ‘impossible’ burger of US based Impossible Foods. Impossible Foods had launched its veggie patty in 2016 (the burger […]
Summer holidays ?!
Having been cooped up indoors due to the coronavirus lockdown for the best part of the past two months, many of us will no doubt be looking forward to getting out and about and not least to some sort of vacation this summer. But where and how? And after 7 weeks in lockdown with my […]
Job opportunities in Japan
While a huge number of jobs are going to disappear in most of the Western Hemisphere on the back of the Covid-19 and its economic fallout, there is one exception: Japan. Japan is sporting currently a ratio of jobs to applicants of 1.39, a historic low, made since even worse by the Coronavirus induced lockdown. […]
A lot will change
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 […]
Where to now for the economy?
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 […]
Lessons of a virus
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 air
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 […]
The grumpy older man 