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Ed Conway

Hi I'm Ed Conway and this is my website!

Jelly rolls and coking drums: a bottom-up look at batteries 🔋

Jelly rolls and coking drums: a bottom-up look at batteries 🔋

I’ve spent a lot of the past few months thinking about batteries, which turn out to be one of the most fascinating topics in modern economics. Here’s a film I’ve made for Sky News about it. Please do watch it! The main problem I had while researching

The thing we're trying to escape is the thing we need to help us escape

The thing we're trying to escape is the thing we need to help us escape

Long before he was famous for sexual misconduct, Louis CK was famous, at least in some circles, for having given voice to one of the funnier commentaries on technology and the economy: “Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy”. You get the overall point: the minute a certain technology is

The curse of big numbers

The curse of big numbers

There are many irritating things about the world of politics and economics but perhaps the most irritating of all is something I like to call numberism. The term might not be familiar but you will almost certainly know what I mean. Numberism is when politicians take a big number and

Unjolly hockey sticks

Unjolly hockey sticks

Someone asked an interesting question at the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ post-Budget briefing yesterday: have we ever seen a squeeze in real earnings like the one we’re currently experiencing? The question matters because real earnings are one of the most important barometers of the economy’s health. During the

Woods, trees and spending reviews

Woods, trees and spending reviews

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper spending review in this country - and by “proper spending review” I mean, something which actually sets the course of government policy for more than a year. These events are often overshadowed by the Budget, which is where

The industrial re-revolution

The industrial re-revolution

Economists are obsessed with the industrial revolution. And when I say obsessed I mean obsessed. The more economic history you read (and I read quite a lot) the more you realise how much of it is really about the industrial revolution - even when those words are nowhere in the

Climate change: why isn't government putting its money where their mouth is?

Climate change: why isn't government putting its money where their mouth is?

Let’s begin with a question. How much would you say governments around the developed world spend on research into energy? They certainly talk about it rather a lot, from Joe Biden to Boris Johnson (and for that matter from Barack Obama to David Cameron) they have talked continually about