Richard Merrick

On the train back from London on Tuesday, I read an article in the Economist that got me thinking about what The Athanor might offer. It reported something I hadn't expected: the ultra-rich are giving up on luxury goods. The price of fine Bordeaux wines has fallen.

There is a quiet power to increments. Almost unnoticeable individually, they gather together until, suddenly, everything is different. Compound interest is about increments. So is nigredo, the initial stage of alchemy that starts transformation quietly and unnoticeably at first. It does not need permission, nor can it be invoked; it

Last Wednesday, I promised you a historical precedent for the kind of collective practice I think we need in times of change of this magnitude… Between 1765 and 1813, a small group calling themselves "lunatics" met monthly in Birmingham during the full moon. They claimed the extra light

Every few years the Global Innovation Index tells us who's winning. Switzerland still tops the list. South Korea and Sweden hover near. The United States and Singapore circle the podium. China has nudged into the top ten. The UK, still rich in research, design, and creativity, has slipped

I realised I was a renter when my blog host locked me out of my email list. Nothing dramatic, just an authentication requirement before I could contact my own subscribers. Sensible policy, rather clunky execution. But the moment crystallised something I’d been circling: I don’t own this platform.

In investing, one of the standout strategies of recent years has been Harry Browne’s so-called “permanent portfolio”, an eccentric 25/25/25/25 split between stocks, bonds, gold and cash. It runs against orthodoxy, ignoring theories of weighted allocations or maximising expected returns. Yet, as The Economist recently