A follow up to the last article

Responding to questions over Graham's comments on The Economist

Loyal reader Cameron asked the following on my last post “Investor Graham Wilde-Short term views deliver poor returns”:

‘Thank you Brandon, I'd be curious to know Graham's view on The Economist's writing style now, and what has caused the changes since he wrote under Alaistair's 'firm stance' editorial style.’

What a great question.

I have literally just got back from dinner at the Ritz (which was apparently Margaret Thatcher’s favourite restaurant as she sat by the window overlooking Green Park) with Graham and asked him this dying question from his fans.

Over the crab starter, I posed the question.

Alastair Burnet was the editor of The Economist during Graham’s tenure there. He said Burnet’s morning routine consisted of getting a bacon bap at a cafe at 7am, take it to the office, eat it, and by 11am he was pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He had a wicked sense of humour and frequently betted on the horses at work. He would have had a field day at the office with Ascot on at the moment.

Alastair himself was a fiery, charismatic character with strong opinions and this wore off on the writers at The Economist. The crazier the better. They knew that if Alastair was going to publish something in The Economist, it better be good, and it better take a stand.

He had also revolutionised the way newspapers are written today. Back then, the front cover was just exclusively full of words. Alastair ensured that the front cover of his editions were impactful with witty and creative images. The Economist writes: “it was no surprise that the most obvious way in which he changed The Economist was to make its appearance less austere, its headlines and captions more chatty and its style more punchy.”

Graham also remarked that you would flick through a 300 page edition and it would be full of advertisements. “It was 50-50 almost. Sometimes you would get a Rolex advert opposite an article saying that the watchmaker would go bust.” Besides the comical juxtaposition, it showed how much companies wanted to appear in the publications.

Andrew Neil, a rather famous British Journalist who famously took on Ben Shapiro in a clip that went viral, had one day strolled into The Economist office as a young reporter and asked for a job. Alastair looked at him and sort of said “oh alright then”.

Alastair also gave Andrew a nickname that will not be exposed here but just know, dear readers, that it is absolutely accurate.

I asked Graham what his nickname was at The Economist to which he bursted out laughing, shook his head, and said “no, I can’t”.

I ordered the beef wellington for the main, where the pastry was crisp and hundreds of tiny mushrooms were fit nice and snug in between the beef and the pastry. I looked over to Graham’s main and asked him what he ordered. “I don’t remember” he said laughing. It looked like the sea bass.

When asked about which topics he would take a stand and argue fiercely about today, he said he would write about government debt and commercial space flight. We spoke frankly about US debt to which we seriously picked apart their ballooning deficit spending.

He agreed that America remains the most robust and dynamic economy in the world and that the US dollar remains the reserve currency of the world despite Trump’s efforts to undermine dollar denominted assets.

“The issue is this. Countries cannot keep spending money however they like, borrowing more and more with zero intention to keep a lid on things. Bond prices have rightly gone down with yields going up because someone or something has to keep governments in check.”

This is the part of the dinner where time slows down, I forget I ordered food, and I ignore the dapper gentleman having dinner by himself in the Ritz. It’s like there’s just the two of us on this six person table in this restaurant. I actually genuinely recall my brain switching on an internal noise-cancelling system, only hearing what he had to say, because it was so interesting. It can’t have been the wine. I was only on my second glass.

When asked which publications still offer bold opinions on matters, Graham says “Very few now. You don’t get editors with the sort of flair, charisma, and willingness to be wrong now.” He mentioned that there are some good independent online posts and that The Spectator reads quite well.

For those who wish to read Alastair Burnet’s obituary by the Economist, here it is:

https://www.economist.com/newsbook/2012/07/20/alastair-burnet

There it is Cameron, hope that has answered your question.

Right off to bed now, got work in the morning.

Above: Graham and I