Three Thousand Years of Honest Money, Ended by a Ship
There is a small sea snail living in the Maldives. The species is called Cypraea moneta. The shell of this…
Finance
The Car You Own That You’ve Never Actually Owned
Picture your Netflix subscription. You pay every month, you watch the shows, and the moment you stop paying, the whole…
The Trick That’s Been Played on You Since Ancient Rome
Your salary is made of salt. Not literally – your bank isn't quietly filling a vault with sodium chloride somewhere…
The Basket That Decides Whether Your Life Is Getting More Expensive
Somewhere in the bowels of the Office for National Statistics, there is a shopping basket. It doesn't exist physically –…
The Price of Waiting
Somewhere around the thirteenth century, a theologian sat down and tried to work out whether charging interest on a loan…
The Paint That Cost More Than the Portrait
There is a fresco in a church in Germany from the thirteenth century. The Virgin Mary's robes are the most…
The Journey a Rate Takes Before It Reaches You (And What Gets Stolen Along the
The Bank of England sets its base rate – 3.75% in October 2026 – and somewhere across London a journalist…