History

I just had a quick tour of the British Museum inspired by an article I read in The Telegraph about their exhibition of British bubbles and bankruptcies.  The exhibition traces back schemes from the 1600s, such as the Darien Disaster, right through the Railway Mania and Overend and Gurney Bank failure of 1866 through to Northern…

One of the panellists at this week’s conference said that he employed twenty people whose sole duty was to find a way to destroy the business. I liked the idea of that.  It is a strong and emotive statement.  But what did he mean? “I employ twenty people in my innovation department who purely look…

One of the panellists at this week’s conference said that he employed twenty people whose sole duty was to find a way to destroy the business. I liked the idea of that.  It is a strong and emotive statement.  But what did he mean? “I employ twenty people in my innovation department who purely look…

As mentioned yesterday, the regulator tries to keep up with the banks who try to keep up with customer, and I said that banks often innovate too slowly. There are many examples of this, but the one that I come back to regularly is Chip & PIN. Chip & PIN has been an enormous success,…

I was talking at a conference and a regulator was on the panel.   The panel chair asked him: “should we think about innovation first or regulation?” and he responded by saying: “It is not a question of regulation or innovation.  I would rather ask the question: why do we need innovation at all?  Who is it…

I just saw a note today that the Science Museum has acquired the very last typewriter produced by the Brother factory: “The factory’s 200 employees witnessed the final model of the Brother CM-1000 being packed into its box to a soundtrack of emotional sighs and cheers. This object is the 5,855,533rd of its type to be…

A hundred years ago, things were different but the same. We needed to eat, but what we ate was very much a national rather than international cuisine. We had to travel, but we would walk, bicycle of take the train. We enjoyed entertainment, with a visit to the cinema once a month as a treat….