When he was a young man, my father-in-law, Anthony (Tony) Morgan, CMG, ret. (more usually known as ‘Mogs’), once remarked to his mother-in-law that he found the peas on his plate to be unusually tasty. It was just a courtesy, really. He could equally well have remained silent or have made a remark about the weather. It was lightly done. The meal had been proceeding as they usually did. Perhaps he felt it was his turn to say something. Perhaps
There is an outbreak of war (trade or real): buy the dip. Financial scandal uncovered at a health insurance company: buy the dip. An expensively valued meme stock misses earnings: buy the dip. No matter the catalyst, I have a friend who will always justify his plans to buy the dip (BTD), while encouraging me to do the same. I’ve been receiving similar advice for many years. During 2009, my Money & Banking professor told us that it was a
It has become a Fathom tradition that, upon returning from holiday, Fathomites will write a blog post tangentally related to their travels. I recently came back from a trip to Taiwan and it’s the nation’s capital (or more precisely its tallest building) that serves as the inspiration for this week’s blog. For those who don’t know, Taipei (the capital city of Taiwan) plays host to the Taipei 101 tower, once the tallest building in the world. On the face of
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) credit has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. With its tempting zero-percent interest rates offered to anyone who can pass a ‘soft’ credit check, it is not hard to see the appeal. Sure, it can make sense to spread medium-size, infrequent purchases into several payments to ease the liquidity constraints of a monthly paycheck. But with BNPL payment now available on food delivery services such as Uber Eats, has it gone too far? For those
When preparing for my interview with Fathom, nearly two years ago now, I remember being both impressed and daunted by Thank Fathom it’s Friday. ‘How on earth’ I thought ‘would I (if I got the job) manage to come up with something interesting, well-written and economics-related at semi-regular intervals?!’. As it turns out this has gone reasonably well (at least up to now), not least because of the willingness of Tom, my partner to brainstorm TFiFs with me. However, dear
¡Espero que estés bien! Si no, no te preocupes, siempre hay un lado positivo. ¡Es el fin de semana! J’espère que tu vas bien! Sinon, ne t’inquiète pas, il y a toujours un bon côté des choses. C’est le week-end! Or for those more like myself, and presently largely constrained to English: I hope you’re doing well! If not, don’t worry there is always a bright side. It’s the weekend! So, where is this going? Several weeks ago I committed
The film Moneyball tells the story of how a small-market Major League Baseball (MLB) team rebuilt after losing several ‘irreplaceable’ star players. Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who hires young economist Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to help him put together a new data-driven approach to recruitment. Armed with the data, Beane signs a collection of new players who don’t fit the mould of textbook baseball superstars in terms of physical stature, injury records
As a young boy growing up in Cape Town, I would spend hours bodyboarding with my friends, day after day, at Muizenberg beach. I always knew there were great white sharks around; after all, Seal Island — their favourite hunting ground — was only 10km away. Surfers have a code of not talking about sharks (spoiler: it is not clear whether I really am a surfer) but I was told that the sharks didn’t come close to the shore at
After talking about the economics of planes in my two previous TFiFs, I thought it was about time I pivoted to focus on my other big interest, which is sport. So today I am going to talk about cricket, and specifically, the players’ auction in the Indian Premier League (IPL). This is a subject that has been causing some heartache for me this season, as the IPL team I support seems to have made a mess of the auction and
Now over halfway through my first year of full-time employment, detached from the education system, fully embracing those three certainties in life, the month of May has taken on a whole new meaning to me. Long gone are the days of pre-examination anxiety that plagued me for over a decade, and warmly welcomed is a commodity of indisputable value, a concept so important it stretches back to 1871. The bank holiday. As a treat for all those years of hard