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For thirty-eight years the ONS published what a pint cost, every month, in pence. The series stops in January 2025 at £4.83. Here is what replaced it, and why two official figures for the same pint are 41p apart.

McDonald's collects around $10 billion a year in rent from its own franchisees, on land it bought decades ago. The burgers were never the business.

An Italian bank has been taking wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano as loan security since 1953, and it has never lost a euro. The reason why explains a lot about whisky casks, warehouses, and what makes anything worth lending against.

22.7 million people hold Premium Bonds and nearly two-thirds have never won a penny. The advertised rate is an average that hides what most people actually get: nothing.

In 1997 the average home in England cost three and a half times a full-time salary. Today it costs 7.6 times. The house did not change. The thing we measure it in did.