Skip to main content

There’s never been a better time to land on this brilliant 404 page

With the global economy currently dealing with a multitude of challenges, and people everywhere watching nervously as prices and bills continue to climb, there’s perhaps no better time to land on the Financial Times’ brilliant 404 error page.

On most websites, the “page not found” message is still a rather dry affair containing little more than a simple message about a possible mistyped address or something about the page  no longer existing.

Recommended Videos

The FT’s 404 page, on the other hand, takes a more creative approach, saying, “Why wasn’t this page found? We asked some leading economists …”

It then offers a list of explanations cleverly crafted from the perspective of various economic schools of thought. It also reads like a refresher in economic theory, highlighting many of the subject areas hitting the news today and therefore making perfect reading for these challenging times.

Here are some examples:

Monetarism
The government has limited the number of pages in circulation.

Classical economics
There is no such page. We are not going to interfere.

Supply and demand
Demand increased and a shortage occurred.

Trickle-down
High taxes on content publishers prevented them hiring the person who would have written this page.

Laissez Faire Capitalism
We know this page is needed, but we can’t force anyone to make it.

Speculative bubble
The page never actually existed and was fundamentally impossible, but everyone bought into it in a frenzy and it’s all now ending in tears.

The FT's 404 error page.
FT

The FT’s 404 page has actually been online for a few years now. On its website, the publication describes how the idea for it came about: “This is a page that hasn’t had a lot of love from the technology team over the last few years, but considering that we’ve disappointed the reader by not giving them what they want, we thought we should make more of an effort with the content of the error page.”

It then ran a survey among FT staff to find the most popular ideas that amused them most before arriving at the list of reasons we see today.

Of course, the FT isn’t the only one to have some fun with its 404 page. NASA’s, for example, features a photo of the universe with the message: “The cosmic object you are looking for has disappeared beyond the event horizon,” while Pixar’s shows an image of Sadness from Inside Out, with the message: “Awww … don’t cry. It’s just a 404 Error! What you’re looking for may have been misplaced in Long Term Memory.”

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The Academy Awards have new film rules. AI is now okay for the Oscars
Robots touching Oscar award.

In 2024, Hollywood was roiled by protests led by the SAG-AFTRA union, fighting for fair rights over their physical and voice identities in the age of AI. A deal was inked late last year to ensure that artists are fairly compensated, but the underlying current was obvious. 

AI in films is here to stay. 

Read more
No more nasty surprises as Airbnb makes big change to booking process
An Airbnb sign.

A key point of frustration for many Airbnb users  is the way the accommodation site adds mandatory extras such as cleaning fees and service fees at the very end of the booking process, sometimes making the desired booking suddenly unaffordable.

Airbnb has finally gotten the message and on Monday announced that users everywhere will now see the total price of their stay right from the start of the booking process, including all fees before taxes (in some countries the taxes will also be shown from the outset).

Read more
Nvidia releases quick fix for incorrect GPU temperature readings
The RTX 5090 sitting on top of the RTX 4080.

Nvidia’s recently released GeForce Game Ready Driver 576.02 for the RTX 5060 Ti has been causing issues for users, with a bug affecting GPU temperature monitoring across a range of graphics cards. After installing the update, many users reported on Reddit and various forums that their GPU temperature readings became frozen or static, remaining stuck at a single value regardless of actual thermal conditions.

The issue can potentially prevent proper fan speed adjustments which can then lead to overheating, as the system relies on real-time temperature data to regulate cooling.

Read more