I have supported Liverpool FC for a long time. I can remember the heady days of the 70s and 80s when they were European champions. For nearly a generation, between 1975 and 1990, Liverpool were dominant. They won 10 titles in England’s top division. They won the European Cup, which preceded the Champions League, four times…
Category: Business
The deficit myth
This week’s Sunday Supplement is a little different from usual. I’d like you to watch a short video of the 2020 Harcourt Lecture by Professor Stephanie Kelton. Her lecture starts after 10 mins (you can skip the introduction) and last for 40 mins. It is worth the investment of your time. Stephanie explains why austerity did more harm…
You can spend it, but can you buy it?
A phenomenon has occurred in recent years that has almost gone unnoticed by most of us. It was always said that time is the only thing we spend but cannot buy. But in recent years more and more businesses have been created that give us the opportunity to ‘buy’ time that we would otherwise spend…
Banks move to clamp down on contractors
Barclays and Lloyds have become the latest big businesses to inform contractors that their engagements would not extend beyond the introduction of new off-payroll working rules to the private sector next April. Contracts will instead be arranged on a PAYE or umbrella firm basis. The move is the latest in a string of similar statements…
Looking at the books, you can see a litany of accounting failures.
After my father died I found among his papers a booklet detailing the history of his mother’s family, the Goodliffes, over several generations during the 19th century, during which they built a thriving wholesale grocery business in the Midlands. In one passage it describes how Thomas Goodliffe, my great-grandfather, went on the first escorted tour…
He didn’t know it was impossible
Did you see Messi’s goal? No, stay with me! This football related analogy has an important message for your business. I’ve been a Liverpool FC fan for more years than I can remember. Last week they played Barcelona FC in the semi-final of the Champions League. They are demonstrably two of the best teams in…
How Universal Credit is destroying a once great nation
Regular readers of my blog will know that on occasion I hand over the pen, metaphorically speaking, to highlight some injustice that should concern us all. Last week the Trussell Trust reported that it handed out over 1.6m food parcels last year, over 500,000 of them to children, as benefit cuts, Universal Credit delays, and rising poverty fuelled…
Rewarding failure
I read with interest an article by Prof Adam Leaver of Sheffield University published by Open Democracy recently. For anyone interested in financial reporting and auditing, and why they have failed to prevent corporate greed and business failures it is essential reading. In the article he looks at how Interserve, which has now failed, paid management bonuses…
Unseen truths
Maybe it’s the time of year. A warm sunny Easter. Not long after I sent you my email about consciousness I received the following email from Christian Simpson whose daily blog I follow: Nature reveals great truths – great truths unseen by the majority. Her laws, universal and unwavering, laws which apply to every part of our lives whether…
Anything at all that matters in life only does so as a consequence of its impact on our conscious mind
Have you ever wondered why relatively few entrepreneurial businesses achieve super success? It’s about one in twenty. Not very many. This should be surprising. Napoleon Hill said “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. There is no shortage of books, articles, websites and research about what makes a successful business…
