This week’s edition of The Chronicles of Unpacking is entitled “How much of my lifetime income was spent on all of these books, and why are there never enough shelves?” We’ve been unboxing books over the last four days, and we’re almost finished, but ran out of shelf space some time ago—a few are st...

The UK's Energy Price Guarantee increased CO2 emissions by 3.2 million tonnes over the period October 2022-April 2023—double the achievements of UK climate mitigation aid over the same period, which we estimate at a reduction of just 1.6 million tonnes of CO2, demonstrating that when it is expedient...

A week into the house move there are definite signs of progress: we have a sofa, which has been thoroughly colonised by my son, who has mastered the art of arranging his four rather small limbs and body in such a fashion as to occupy as large a surface area as possible; the boxes have graduated from...

Apologies in advance if this week’s links seem somewhat truncated: we moved house this week, and between carrying various heavy items up and down (not least my son, who has been rather unimpressed with the whole process) and unpacking (a process somewhat slower than downloading a photo on a dial-up ...

I’m writing the links from my in-laws’ place in Northumberland this week. There are many joys of being out here: having a woods just behind the house to take my son for a walk in, good food and beaches and most of all, the wildlife. Previous visits have been enlivened by pine martens, weasels and he...

Roughly seven years ago, the UK voted to leave the European Union (I simultaneously cannot believe it was that long ago and cannot believe it was so recent, which is somehow apt). I remember the next day clearly: it was a Friday and a colleague of mine entered the office with a stream of extremely u...

Last week’s email included a link about the hellscape that is Anglo-American childcare provision, and prompted some really wonderful emails from readers who have navigated it, with varying levels of success (as an aside, I always love it when I get any emails about the links I send. Economics doesn’...

I love both stats and sports, so when the two collide, as they did in this moment, when LeBron James broke a record that had stood since 8 months before he was born to become the highest scoring player in basketball history, I’m a very happy man. The last time I felt quite like this was when Muttiah...

After paralysis and despair in the face of infinite shades of off-white paint a couple of weeks ago, I have graduated to a new form of suffering: choosing tiles. Tiles are even more fiendish, because the choice is multiplicative: you can choose several colours, finishes, crackles, glazes and glosses...

You’ll have to forgive me if the introduction to the links seems a bit distracted: England are in the final stages of an absolute thriller against South Africa in a one-day international, with Jofra Archer easing back into international cricket by being absolutely carted for 81 runs in his ten overs...