Professor Simon Johnson, 2024 Nobel Prize winner, will be the Chair of the government's new AI Economics Institute, tasked with building the evidence base on how artificial intelligence will affect productivity, jobs, markets and firms.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
You see something similar if you look at bundled telecoms packages (e.g. broadband, TV and landline) or at ‘internet access provision’ (broadband). Prices jump each April, and the UK looks like an outlier. Quite striking!
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
This is such a great piece
The Bank of England is consulting the public on which animals should go on our banknotes. Surely it has to be the European hedgehog, in honour of the chart below.
"Analysis conducted for Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, found that 36% of children in secure settings had attended schools in the West Midlands and – astonishingly – 20% went to the same six schools."
I had to read this several times - just a jaw-dropping statistic
Things obviously don't look great for the economists, but at least they're going in the right direction. Another decade like the last and we might overtake the sports commentators
If my investigation of UK productivity stats doesn't float your boat, you might like this incredible investigation into whether the CIA poisoned Gordon Banks to spike England's chances at the 1970 World Cup (I was sceptical too, until I read it...)
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Resharing this, in case you spent yesterday enjoying the sunshine rather than reading long threads about productivity measurement
You’ve probably heard of Henry – the High Earner, Not Rich Yet. But what about his nemesis, Richard – who Retired In a Comfortable House And Refuses to Downsize?
There are quite a lot of Richards out there. They’re the subject of my column for today’s Observer.
observer.co.uk/news/busines...
This chart is bonkers.
I think there's two possible explanations for why the UK runs so far ahead of other European countries – neither of them good. And the annual April price jump speaks to a wider issue. For more detail, see my column in this weekend's Observer.
observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
After his three-year investigation, Gabriel Gatehouse is starting to believe that the US spy agency could actually have spiked goalkeeper Gordon Banks’s beer in Mexico
Unemployment is up. Vacancies are down. The retail and hospitality sectors are shedding jobs. At the same time, there are encouraging signs of a productivity revival.
Are these things related – and was this part of a deliberate government strategy all along? 🧵
Unemployment is up. Vacancies are down. The retail and hospitality sectors are shedding jobs. At the same time, there are encouraging signs of a productivity revival.
Are these things related – and was this part of a deliberate government strategy all along? 🧵
10 years on, have the British public still had enough of experts?
Trust in nurses and doctors in their area of expertise remains high, with trust growing significantly in economists, weather forecasters and nutritionists
yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
Rachel Reeves is about to get bitten by the productivity hedgehog. A bigger-than-expected OBR downgrade means a bigger-than-expected consolidation will be needed to meet the fiscal rules. Makes it harder to honour manifesto tax promises, and harder to build in more ‘headroom’.
Spent an evening behind the scenes to understand how darts became the best sport on TV 🎯
Unbelievable work and skill goes into it - I tried to break the process down @observeruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...
I wrote about the shocking state of youth justice:
- 2/3 reoffend
- 1/5 of kids in YOIs went to same 6 schools
- 2/3 grew up in care
- 61% have experienced violence in custody
- 3/4 have history of persistent absence
- YOI costs double Eton but only 20% pass GCSEs
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
Ben Zaranko
Ben Zaranko
YouGov
Lenient sentences handed to two teenage rapists have sparked fury but the government says it does not want to jail children. How does it square the circle?
