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Brand-Power is Real — but the Goalposts Won’t Stop Moving
From the upstarts to the everlasting, branding and marketing drive sales. That goes beyond mere recognition, and requires a certain stability: Sellotape, Google, and Rollerblade are generic terms intrinsically tied to products. Big name firms are those most able
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Uncertainty and Pessimism Surround Emergence of the Omicron Variant
The Omicron variant will either be a major development in the Covid-19 crisis… or a blip on the ever-changing, post-pandemic screen. Uncertainty has always plagued the global economy, from the Great Depression through to the 2016 Brexit referendum. In the
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Energy Sector Grapples with Hydra-Headed Problems of Global Supply and Demand
At the recent COP-26 climate summit in Glasgow, government officials and leaders of international organisations put the spotlight on the energy sector. This year marked the first meeting of the Energy Transition Council, formed to accelerate the shift to cleaner
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Inflation, Used Cars, Silicon Chips and Supply-Demand: Links in a Worrying Chain
Chips — no, not the potato or chocolate kind, the electronic ones – are a driving force behind a spike in inflation. Whether it’s cars or computers, we depend on silicon chips — and a global shortage is having some
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World Bank: Sustained Global Solidarity Needed to Achieve Global COVID-19 Recovery
The pandemic has affected virtually everyone in the world, but its impacts have been hardest on the poor and vulnerable, deepening inequalities and exacerbating underlying challenges. Now more than ever, global solidarity is needed to address the widening gaps between
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Invasion of the Robots! Beware, Beware! Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean That We Should…
AI, facial-recognition, machine learning… where should humans draw the line when it comes to automated ‘job theft’? Yogesh Patel gives it some thought. Hammers, spanners, screwdrivers, scissors: tools of all shapes, sizes and functions have acted as catalysts for human
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Permanent Output Losses from the Pandemic
In the World Economic Outlook, published October 12, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slightly lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year to 5.9%, while maintaining a forecast of 4.9% for 2022. It also emphasized the “divergence” in the
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From the Black Plague to the Covid Crisis, Quarantine has Affected Maritime Trade
An overly familiar term in the 2020s, “quarantine”, dates from the 14th Century and is derived from quarantena — Italian for 40 — the number of days ships were held in the port of Venice, crews aboard, during the Black
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Home is Where the Mortgage is: 2008 Crisis has Lessons for Sector
Of all the sectors affected by the pandemic, the housing market has performed better than expected. In 2008, home loans were at the epicentre of one of the largest economic downfalls in history. The packaged selling of risky loans led
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Where are We Going? Nowhere, Fast, According to Travel and Tourism Stats
Whether domestic or international, business or pleasure, travel is an integral part of modern life — no longer just a luxury for the wealthy. The rise of the affluent middle class, and increased access to global networks, have caused a
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