Josh Spero

@joshspero.ft.com

11722 Followers 934 Following

Wealth editor, Financial Times. I like swimming, classical music and cryptic crosswords. Working on a memoir about my earlier life at a magazine for the very rich. he/him đŸłïžâ€đŸŒˆ josh.spero@ft.com

Wowzers: Seems too easy to contest a will. If I have 5 adult kids and 10 million quid and I want to give it all to a cats shelter and I am of sound mind.....that should be that. 87654: Miao.
The seventeenth-century French essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote, of his attachment to his contemporary Étienne de La BoĂ©tie, "If you press me to say why I loved him, I feel that it cannot be expressed except by replying: Because it was him: because it was me? "
In a parasocial world, Gordon implies, ties are rooted in surface identification rather than in more robust connections, and friendship becomes an aspirational activity through which you pursue an identity you want.
The Odyssey film review — Christopher Nolan’s $250mn epic is both crazy and conventional Matt Damon leads lavish retelling of Homer that paints Odysseus as trickster king, haunted hero and fallible dad JULY 15, 2026 ï»żThe Oresteia theatre review — no gods or fates, just a superbly acted psychodrama Simon Stone relocates Aeschylus’s tragedy to the present day in a shattering play about war and inherited trauma at London’s Bridge Theatre
In New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, you can look at a shard of pottery — the scrap paper of the ancient world — from the Byzantine period, on which a young boy has dutifully copied out the Iliad’s first line over and over
FT headline: Toronto nude spot emerges as unlikely flashpoint over Canada investment. Picture is people cycling down a rainbow-painted path
My most irrational fear Local museums with uncanny mannequins AI prompt: Compare creepy mannequin spots
This Simple White Line Is America's Greatest Unsung Innovation
Map of Trump's revised White House with large East Wing. Box text reads: The large structure will block the symbolic axis between the presidential residence and the Capitol, and disrupt the symmetrical landscaping of the White House driveways
Nine years after he first exaggerated the size of the audience for his inauguration on Washington’s National Mall, Donald Trump this week reprised his role as crowd-estimator-in-chief for America’s 250th birthday.
LIVE CRYPTIC CROSSWORD SOLVE-ALONG Put your puzzling skills to the test as artist, software engineer and Wordle creator Josh Wardle joins FT crossword editor Roger Blitz and FT lead visual journalist Francesca Jakobi for a live cryptic crossword solve-along, hosted by FT Wealth editor Josh Spero. All abilities are welcome.
Photo of two people wearing plastic horned helmets and carrying a Norwegian flag, above the headline Norway embraces “Viking” rowing ritual in storming World Cup campaign
Map of Britain with large yellow, orange and red patches reflecting heat zones
Weather person talking to camera, then focus switches to a man in blue Speedos emerging from the pool
Greenspan married his first wife, Joan Mitchell, in 1952 but the couple split up after about a year. It was through that relationship that he first met Russian emigree Ayn Rand in 1952. Rand had become famous for her novel The Fountainhead, as well as a belief in the creative power of capitalism and the vital role of self-interest and the individual in society.
Photo of a man in a black Speedo standing smilingly on a concrete jetty leading into a swimming pond surrounded by trees
Among the works reflected is “Descent into Limbo” (1992), a black-coated circular hole threatening to swallow you into a bottomless pit (it’s actually only 2.5 metres deep, as a visitor who fell in a few years ago discovered).
Thune has had to deliver a series of unwelcome news to Trump
By early 2025, Direct Action had begun encouraging its online followers — which numbered in the low hundreds — to spray anti-Islamic graffiti on mosques and Islamic centres in south London.
The scenario can’t fail to feel intense, but technically it’s a mess. The AI-generated humans have vacant eyes, the usual bland burnish and push-button emotional expressions. They move through scenes and shots that are clunkily edited. In an astonishing unforced error, their dialogue sounds muddy, even garbled; Koosha reportedly recorded all the voices himself and fine-tuned gender and age qualities with AI. There’s also no substitute for good writing: the wheelchair-bound boy and his caretaker brother are cornily sketched out, as is the pianist who declares: “I don’t have anything but music.”
From the lip of the monstrous black hole, called Sagittarius A*, a large cone of nothingness funnelled outwards. This, researchers announced last week, is long-sought evidence of a hot breeze flowing outwards from the black hole and sweeping away the cold gas in its path, and one that has been blowing for around 20,000 years.  
Speaking with ARTnews on Monday, Allen said the experience in Venice had been overwhelming. “It was very difficult,” he said. “People on the street there came up to me and gave their opinion about whether I should or shouldn’t have done the pavilion.” Allen said he ended up leaving Venice after just two days, skipping dinners, parties, and official events.
Cover of What the Bouncer Saw: Life on the front line of the security business by George Bass. A young person is slumped in a corner with a traffic cone on their head
Uyghurs interviewed by the FT say large parts of their families have been detained. Nureli Abliz, a former telecoms worker in Xinjiang, estimates that roughly 70 per cent of his extended family remain in custody. Zhang said that reasons given by the police to justify detention included household possession of so-called sensitive items including maps or personal fitness equipment. Activists in the diaspora continue to report former neighbours disappearing in the night, after being discovered with religious artefacts at home, for example, or fasting during Ramadan. Others have been detained after travelling abroad. 
A man in black Speedos wades into a waveful windy sea under a clear blue sky
Jay Rayner This is annoyingly good. Bryce went, so I don't nave to. Bryce Elder/FT Jay, if you're ever interested in a job swap where you write about non-recourse factoring and I contemplate soup, LMK. Jay Rayner I'm ALL over non-recourse factoring. (Googles furiously). Bryce Elder/FT Meanwhile, I'm googling soup.
Worse still, VĂ©liz says, the markets can reinforce echo chambers and create self-fulfilling prophecies. Or, to cite the financial sociologist Donald MacKenzie, the key point about predictive models is they are not mere “cameras” that offer independent snapshots of our world; they are also “engines”, because forecasts can shape outcomes too.
Apple Weather app showing 10C feels like 2C
But for the less-than-best and those past their best, Peds can make them feel they still belong on the starting blocks. This was performance enhancement as a kind of DEI initiative - and one that mostly served to make current "non-enhanced" Olympians look more superhuman.
Extreme close-up of a woman’s face, cropped tightly around her eyes and pink lips, showing her pores
I saw my thoughts or even, failing my thoughts, for those who were unable to understand them, the repetition of my name and a kind of glorified echo of my person radiate over so many people at that very moment, colouring their thoughts with a dawning light which filled me with more strength and triumphal joy than the rosy fingers of dawn which pressed simultaneously at countless window panes.
A bright yellow branded stand for people to be photographed in front of
Another reason to think the Tories are underpriced is that Labour will fall even further. If Sir Keir Starmer goes, Britain faces three years with an unelected prime minister, enacting ideas to the left of the government’s 2024 mandate, with unions and electoral reject Ed Miliband setting the course. It would take a Dante to put into words how hated these people are going to be.
FT story: Ebay rejects $56bn GameStop bid as ‘neither credible nor attractive’ Rebuff could spur video game retailer’s chief Ryan Cohen to launch hostile bid for online marketplace Picture of a man in a blue suit stroking a small white poodle-like dog
The KFC logo of an old man between red stripes with the FT logo imposed on the FC
Google Doc word count showing 102 pages and 50,300 words
Until now, the biennale has fallen back in its defence on the kind of lily-livered platitudes that only serve to make it feel irrelevant. The biennale has argued that its founding spirit is one “based on openness, dialogue, and the rejection of any form of closure or censorship”, and that it “seeks to be, and must remain, a place of truce in the name of art, culture, and artistic freedom”. In principle these are worthwhile aims, but they become hollow when wielded as abstract concepts with no application. Artistic freedom for a nation accused of committing genocide? Truce for a country that has spent years obliterating its neighbour in a war which it refuses to end? These words are an insult to those fighting against the tyrants who appoint curators to throw together Potemkin exhibitions and who expect nothing less than a red carpet for their efforts.
Screenshot of a bearded man in a navy jacket and red tie (vintage Dior) mid-word. Caption reads: Why is Sotheby’s acting like a bank?
In the introduction to her book The Confidence Game, psychologist Maria Konnikova explains: “The true con artist doesn’t force us to do anything: he makes us complicit in our own undoing . . . we believe because we want to.”
Chipshop chalkboard offering Aperol and chips for ÂŁ7.50
BBC News headline: Chippies sell catfish as 'traditional fish supper' above a picture of fish and chips
Poster for Hamilton on the left: I am not throwin’ away shot. Poster for Plenish ginger juice on the right: Small shot mighty ritual
A long row of posters with close-ups of politicians’ mouths
A lawyer for Yury Shamara said he had been “unaware of any geographic proximity between the golf club and any defence-linked businesses . . . nor of the asserted significance of the trainline”. “As an enthusiast, he was intending to provide support to a financially struggling local golf course,” the lawyer added.
Photo of white blossom on an apple tree being uploaded to Bluesky encouraging the user to add alt-text, which describes images for blind and low-vision users and helps give context to everyone. I have added an orange arrow to point to the alt-text label
Reddit posts: MILF: My Interesting Lady Friend - Kimmy Kimmy! Don't tell us what you think it stands for! We already know it's wrong!
Photo of Celine Dion on the phone with the text je téléphone à la police
Art Newspaper headline: Stealing the show: Mona Lisa heist inspires Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
FT comment: This is amazing. Can finally complete my dream dinner table; Human Zuck, Metaverse Zuck & AI Zuck.
FT comment: HM Ronald, Baron of McDonalds Stick that in your sofa and smoke it Vance
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/. https://www.ft.com/content/5ed07139-1626-4d2c-88a3-dec8357ad643 Now would be a great time to send US ambassadors to the Middle East At a time when many question American leadership, there’s an underrated value in simply showing up
FT headline: The creeping feeling that life is getting too long Why our lengthening lifespans are not entirely welcome. The illustration shows an old man in silhouette at the bottom of a long staircase by an illuminated EXIT sign
FT headline: Does Gen Z fear ‘boomer’ art? The orthodoxy of museums, galleries and critics is viewed with suspicion by new tastemakers
IG post from Wireless: As a result of the Home Office banning YE from entering the United Kingdom, Wireless Festival has been forced to cancel. All ticket holders will recieve an automatic full refund.
“Intuition is suspect,” said Alma Steingart(opens a new tab), a historian at Columbia University. The next four words are highlighted: “There is this feeling that intuition can lead you the wrong way.”
When I was young my father said to me: “Knowledge is power, Francis Bacon.” I understood it as “Knowledge is power, France is bacon.” For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two. If I said the quote to someone, “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon,” they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, “Knowledge is power” and I’d finish the quote “France is bacon,” and they wouldn’t look at me like I’d said something very odd, but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” mean and got a full 10-minute explanation of the “knowledge is power” bit but nothing on “France is bacon.” When I prompted further explanation by saying “France is bacon?” in a questioning tone, I just got a “yes.” At 12 I didn’t have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I’d never understand. It wasn’t until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
Median earnings for crypto, politics, sports are sometimes 30 times lower than mean earnings, which top accounts inflate
Orders from above were issued to keep bona fide theologians away from the conferences, and Italian media reported that in the Roman palazzo where Thiel lectured, the flñneurs with waxed moustaches vastly outnumbered the Bible scholars. The evangelical tech mogul was informally excommunicated by a church he doesn’t even belong to.
Surely, with an apparatus as large as the Salzburg Easter Festival, someone could have raised an eyebrow when Serebrennikov hauled out stacks of African icons as casual props, borrowed imagery from Tibetan Buddhism, or gestured at Islamic ritual. In his programme book interview, Serebrennikov mentions director Peter Brook and his “world theatre”. But Brook lived and worked for decades with people from India and Africa. Serebrennikov, it would seem, has just gone shopping.
Under Gelb’s leadership, the Met has steadily lost money, audiences, and artistic eminence. The company is not yet in its death throes, but it is in need of drastic intervention.