According to the Financial Times, the UK now vies with the US for most developed financial market, with New York narrowly retaining its lead over London as a financial market. It’s the UK’s second bite at the apple, having been the most important financial center through much of the 1800s. [Read more]

As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I’ve spent more than my share of time in Germany, most of it in Bavaria. That’s what makes this article all the more painful – it’s a fascinating trip through the Bavarian beer industry, and I wasn’t invited. Check it out. [Read more]

Apparently, the prolonged slump continues to encourage smaller US businesses to look overseas for new markets, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a great way to get a jump on the competition while taking advantage of the weakness of the dollar. [Read more]

I’ve complained about this before, but I have to say, I’m getting really tired of hops. Ok, so I’m not actually getting tired of hops per se, but I am quite tired of the idea that every beer, of every style, must be hopped to the hilt in order to be of any worth. In fact, I have to admit that I was almost thankful for the hop shortage, hoping it would lead to a somewhat more discriminate use by brewers. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t. In fact, the other day I picked up a variety pack of Flying Fish, a fine local brewery, only to find that they too have jumped on the Hop head bandwagon, replacing one of the four beers with HopFish. As you can guess, it’s a hoppy IPA. Nothing against HopFish, which is a good beer,... [Read more]

This seems like a clever project – the BBC have labelled a shipping container with their logo and will be tracking it over the next year to see where it goes and what it ships. You can track it too, using their GPS-driven online map. It’s a very clever and hands-on way to show how international trade works. If you see it in your town let us know! [Read more]