Why World Cup tickets got so expensive
Taylor breaks down FIFA's 'variable pricing' for the 2026 World Cup and sets it beside the faster dynamic pricing that caught out Oasis fans, a neat way to show prices responding to demand in real time. The piece is strong on scarcity and urgency raising willingness to pay, and on how a near once-in-a-lifetime event supports high prices. There is a good comparison with US entertainment pricing (Super Bowl, Taylor Swift) that raises the question of whether prices simply recali
Investment tips from your taxi driver
The risk-return trade-off gets a clear, jargon-light treatment here, built around the old adage that you should sell when your taxi driver starts offering stock tips. Taylor contrasts cash and equities using Vanguard's long-run figures, then leans on Robert Shiller's idea that investment narratives spread like a contagion, with FOMO pushing people into assets they don't really believe in. It works well for behavioural economics (herding, animal spirits) and for the financial
Sequels, kids and monsters: the formula for a blockbuster film
Hermione Taylor uses last year's highest grossing films to unpick why sequels, franchises and children's films dominate the box office while streaming eats into cinema audiences. The economics is light but the hooks are strong: streaming and cinema as substitutes, convenience and cost as determinants of demand, and children's weak grasp of delayed gratification as a nudge towards the 'watch it now' cinema trip. Useful as a lesson starter or a discussion piece early in a deman