Spanish Economy - After the Fiesta
The Spanish economy is in trouble after out-performing the rest of the Euro Zone for the last decade. Download this special feature on the Spanish Economy…
read more...»Is this how EU grants should be allocated?
The European Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development has made grants of up to £5,000 available to farmers in Northern Ireland to help modernise their farms, improving animal welfare and farm efficiency. But with just £6m available, many farmers are set to lose out. The farmers whose grant applications are successful will be able to buy from a government-approved list of items such as cow mattresses, creep feeders and computerised livestock identification systems, and must add to the amount of money they are allocated from their own funds. Michelle Gildernew, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, says that this is an “important boost to the economy”, because many of the items on the approved list have been made in Northern Ireland.
read more...»Economics of fishing
The BBC today has two stories on the economics of fishing. Firstly the government has announced a £5m plan to fund the de-commissioning of some of the UK’s in-shore fishing fleet in a bid t oreduce what the government regards as fundamental excess capacity in the industry.
£5m fund to scrap fishing boats
This BBC video looks at the background
Secondly the rising stocks of cod in the north sea has led in part oa rise in the size of the annual cod quota given to scottish fishermen by the European Union as part of their common fisheries policy. But the thorny issue of discarding excess fish remains unsettled. The quotas refer to landed cod which encourages fishing vessels to dump much of the fish they have caught before they reach home in order to avoid fines for over-fishing. The result is a deadweight loss of scarce resources in an industry already suffering from the long term decline in fish stocks.
Fishermen land cod deal at talks
See also “Scots anger over discarded fish”
Price mechanism in action - something fishy is going on
The output from the BBC local news teams often produces some superb Economics materials. Take this video clip for example. For those of you who are not in the Grimsby area, you may have missed this great example of supply and demand in action. Plenty of scope for teacher puns too, but I’ll pass on that opportunity - I know my plaice…
Launch video clip from BBC site
Proposed reforms to the EU CAP
Good coverage of the proposed reforms to the European Union farm support policy in the Independent today - the brief details are below
read more...»Fishing and the Tragedy of the Commons
The Observer ran a special feature at the weekend about the global fishing crisis that results from over-fishing and the permanent reduction in fish stocks
read more...»
