don’t lie, this cover eats.

After 'the Pinch' comes 'the Punch': Britain's boomers are losing for the first time economist.com/britain/2024/0…

On “The Intelligence” Vinjeru Mkandawire visits Canary Wharf, a glass-and-steel London business district that is transforming itself to fit a work-from-home world econ.st/3TITgZG

Vodafone was once worth more than Apple. What happened? The British telecoms company is trying to slim its way back to health econ.st/3wU5gyb 👇

London’s dockland district now has more homes, more fun and fewer offices. Read how working from home has reshaped Canary Wharf econ.st/3uQODmn 👇

👋 Thank you to Journo Resources for spreading the word about two vacancies on The Economist’s award-winning social-media team. Apply by February 16th:

• Editor (permanent contract): journoresources.org.uk/job/social-med…

• Fellow/intern (12-month contract): journoresources.org.uk/job/social-med…

Reminded me of this great piece from jo ellison on the topic of quiet luxury and The Row/ Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on.ft.com/46gjipX via Financial Times

South Sudan is often associated with war, corruption and poverty

Safaris, less so

For our Xmas edition I wrote about another side to the world’s newest country: how 🇸🇸 is home to a largely unknown and magical wilderness

economist.com/interactive/ch… from The Economist

Norway can *build a tunnel* for lower cost than it takes Britain just to *do the planning application* for one

And many other damning facts in this thread:

NEW: we need to talk about the dire state of British transport infrastructure.

Of the 52 UK cities with 250k+ people, only 8 (15%) have a tram or metro.

In France & Germany it’s 80%, Poland is on 60%.

Even *American* cities are better served, and the US hates public transit!

This time last year UK house prices were rising at a double-digit pace. Now they're falling at the fastest rate since the financial crisis.
Nationwide data shows prices dropped 3.8% in the year to July. Biggest fall in house price inflation for 14 years.

What life is like in the fastest-growing large city in the United States: nytimes.com/2023/07/11/us/…

Britain’s bosses are in a funk. Last year, one­-tenth of the CEOs running FTSE 350 companies stood down, more than double the tally for 2021. Many factors lie behind the malaise. Could relatively paltry pay be one? econ.st/3XjLYeS

NEW
The average two year fixed rate mortgage has just passed through the 6% threshold. Up to 6.01% according to Moneyfacts. Highest level since 2000. But still rising.
The coming mortgage squeeze now looks like being as bad if not worse than the late 1980s…

Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Our new research shows that 84% of social housing high rises still don't have sprinklers and 88% don't have block-wide fire alarms.

What happened to 'never again'?

insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/vast…

About half of large multinationals are planning to cut office space in the next three years as they adapt to the rise of homeworking since the pandemic on.ft.com/3OTk0od

Great to be quoted in this The Economist piece. Highlights the breadth of sectors which are being courted by US & elsewhere. Feels as if the UK lacks even the basic systems to court firms in a similar way, let alone develop specific offers/incentives economist.com/britain/2023/0…

Great opp for aspiring economists - Discover Economics has launched its 'Young Economist of the Year' competition for year 10-13 students who would like to be published in the Financial Times, more details here if you know of anyone for it: discovereconomics.co.uk/young-economis…

For The Sunday Times. What really happened to Generation Help to Buy:

- One in 8 properties (12,000+) sold having lost value compared to the purchase price.

(68% of London properties sold since 2016 have lost value, our FOI found)

thetimes.co.uk/article/1ddd41…