There’s nothing like an outing to Hackney to start the mind whirring about gentrification. And we can think of no surer way to start an argument than to wander into an unreformed East End boozer enthusing about all the new construction and upscale shops popping up in the neighbourhood. The term gentrification was actually born in Islington. It was coined in the 60s by sociologist Ruth Glass, who noticed the phenomenon of middle-class people......

One of the reasons our economy could be in a real mess this year is that the price of basic stuff like fuel and food is going up fast. That means that it’s difficult for the central banks in Britain and Europe to justify lowering interest rates to encourage us to spend more — because spending would spur more inflation, which could get out of control. In developed countries, inflation is kind of like......

When this small bit of Londonist launched its IPO this summer, we had no inkling that the economy would soon be in very choppy waters. Since then we’ve seen a bank run, huge corporate losses, and grim warnings across the board. And yet somehow, bankers are still getting huge bonuses, people are still spending money they don’t have, and the rich-poor gap is getting wider and wider. All of this has left us quite......

Recently we've been doing some research on Scotland, and while we haven’t come to any firm conclusions on the West Lothian question, it has prompted us to wonder – would London be better off as an independent country? We’d keep more of our tax money to begin with. It’s been estimated that London subsidises the rest of the UK to the tune of £13 billion a year – so that’s Crossrail paid for by......

‘Credit crunch’ is surely the front-runner for phrase of the year. The long and tortured story of how iffy loans turned into high-rated assets and then turned into dust has been well-covered elsewhere. But has it affected anybody other than City bankers and the head of Merrill Lynch? The way to tell if the crunch has really trickled down to street level is to find out if people who previously had little trouble getting......

Once again the artists are out in front of the eggheads and politicians. Earlier we covered tonight’s experiment in direct economic democracy at The Albany – effectively, attendees pay a £10 tax to join The Albany’s mini-society, and they all get a say on how the pot will be spent. Just imagine if council tax operated on the same basis! If that weren’t enough financial excitement, tomorrow the new Radiohead download comes out – priced......

What would you do for 10p? Probably not a whole lot if you’re like a very tired friend of ours on Saturday night. The lure of saving a couple of shillings failed to persuade her to stay for another drink: ‘Wait a half hour and the bus fare cut kicks in. You’ll even save 20p on your two buses back to Ealing.’ Predictably she chose bed over beer. Buses are now 90p instead of......

The Underground is running again, but how much did the strike cost? Perhaps not as much as you might think. The Press Association and many others have been bandying about a figure of £50 million a day. Unfortunately, details about where that number comes from are difficult to come by. We can’t judge the methodologies of anonymous ‘analysts’, but we can point out that a simple count of all the transactions that weren’t made because......

An occasional column on the forces behind the capital’s economy. Potemkin, a Russian-themed vodka bar on Clerkenwell Road, has unveiled an intriguing set of five cocktails whose recipes will be tied to stock prices. It’s not an entirely new idea. We (barely) remember a night at the Dax bar in Hannover, and there’s the near-famous Dow Jones in Barcelona. The twist this time around is that Potemkin will adjust the alcohol content of its drinks......