Economies hooked on central bank stimulants?
Three years ago Andrew Sentance was one of the 9 members of the MPC who voted for the extraordinary measures of bringing base rate down to 0.5% and creating the new stimulant of Quantitative Easing in an attempt to bring the economy around. In today’s Sunday Telegraph he recalls why he voted for them at that time, and explains why he thinks that they must be gradually withdrawn now from an economy which has become dependent on them for its survival.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Slideshare Presentation on Trade Unions
An updated presentation for A2 microeconomics on some economic aspects of trade unions in the UK is now available through slideshare
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: A Man Regains his Self Respect
We have followed Stephen Stubbs on the economics blog before. This committed man from the north-east of England has been out of work for more than a year and had filed nearly two thousands job applications in a concerted and lengthy pursuit of a fresh job. What marvellous news it is that he has found work with the student loans company. Here are two videos that tell the story of his long and difficult pathway to finding new work.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Trade Union and Industrial Stoppages
I am teaching trade unions as part of our study of labour markets in the UK and the rest of Europe. This data from Timetric tracks the number of days lost from industrial disputes / stoppages and is always useful in providing historical context. Data on UK trade union membership can be found here
* Trade union density for employees in the UK was just 26.6 per cent in 2010
* Trade union membership levels for UK employees was 6.5 million compared with 2009. Across all sectors of the economy, just under half of UK employees (46.1 per cent in 2010) were in a workplace where a trade union was present
* The hourly earnings of union members, according to the LFS, averaged £14.00 in 2010, 16.7 per cent more than the earnings of non-members (£12.00 per hour)
Unit 2 Macro: Rosling on China and the UK Converging
Here is a lovely three minute Newsnight video featuring Hans Rosling on the convergence in income per capita and health outcomes between China and the UK. Great presentation.
Unit 2 Macro: Targeted Tax Cuts to help the Economy
The Confederation of British Industry is a lobbying organisation and seeks to promote and protect the interest of many of the UK’s leading businesses across manufacturing and services. Ahead of the March Budget, their head John Cridland argues in this video for a series of targeted tax cuts as a stimulus for the economy. This is worth watching to get a feel for what are the priorities of business at this stage of the cycle. How much different would it be if the interviewee was representing the trade unions?
read more...»Pinterest: Board on Developments in the UK Economy
I am putting together a new Pinterest board on developments in the UK economy - it can be found here If any teaching colleague would like to collaborate and help maintain and grow the board please let me know.
A return to Glass-Steagall to prevent another crash? A lesson from economic history.
At the World Traders’ Tacitus lecture last night, Terry Smith proposed a return to the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act in order to reform the banking sector. The title of his lecture was ‘Is Occupy right?’, and while he clearly didn’t go along with some of the propositions of the Occupy movement, such as the imposition of a financial transaction tax, he did say that they have a serious point to make about the financial system.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Is the UK Economy Turning a Corner?
Joe Lynam reports for BBC Newsnight on prospects for the UK economy - an excellent short feature on attempts to grow the economy and achieve a re-balancing towards exports and investment. See also BBC news: Bank of England says UK economy ‘to zigzag’ this year
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy
Here are some notes from watching and listening to the Bank of England Inflation Report press conference. As always there was much for students of macroeconomics especially those keen to pick up some of the key thoughts of policy makers as we strive to achieve a sustained recovery.
read more...»Economics Explained, by Evan
Here is a great little article on the Today programme’s website by Evan Davis, looking at the relative merits of Plan A - Austerity - vs Plan B - government spending. He takes the arguments of Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who believes that what’s required at the moment is a short term, temporary fiscal stimulus to boost output and jobs and of Roger Bootle, managing director of Capital Economics, who thinks it would be dangerous for the government to divert from its Plan A of spending cuts.
read more...»Evaluating the effect of Quantitative Easing - A Case Against?
The effect of QE on savers is examined here in this excellent video and studio discussion led by Faisal Islam, the Economics Correspondent at Channel 4 news. Those households that don’t borrow are less interested in sustained low interest rates. One significant effect of QE and the decision to keep the base rate at 0.5% is to effectively eliminate the returns to saving. Is the policy worthwhile?
read more...»Stephanie Flanders explains Quantitative Easing in 60 seconds
This has to be amongst the best 60 seconds of Economics you’ll ever see on television. The superb Stephanie Flanders takes a leaf out of the RSA playbook to explain the basic theory behind quantitative easing. Wonderful!!
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: The Economic Disaster of Youth Unemployment
The official figures show that there are now more than one million young people counted as unemployed in the UK although the precise scale of the jobless crisis is difficult to measure accurately. Nonetheless, it represents a fundamental economic, social and political problem and one that policy makers must address.
In this video report from Al Jazeerah, Lawrence Lee visits Leeds to find a well qualified nineteen year old with good qualifications but who cannot afford to go to university and is finding it tough to win a place in the police force - his main ambition.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow
Britain is one of the world’s biggest exporters of creative products - from live TV shows and music to books, arts, architecture and films the economy has built up an enviable global reputation for excellence and a growing trade surplus to aid our balance of payments.
Computer games falls squarely into this category but, according to TIGA - the trade association representing the UK’s games industry - unless there is renewed government support, the future of this sector is at risk. TIGA claims that the British games industry is suffering a significant ‘brain drain’ as talented programmers and artists leave the country to work abroad.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Exporting to the Booming Chinese Economy
Before you read this blog please have a look at another blog written by our good friend Mark Johnston from New Zealand. Students of China and the US economy will find it fascinating!
There are good grounds for no longer calling China an emerging economy - it has arrived! The multiple significance of the rapidly-growing Chinese economy is plain for all to see but for Britain, only a small percentage of our exports of goods and services go there and this must change if Britain is to fully engage with and benefit from the rising might of the Chinese consumer. This article from the Daily Mirror provides a non-technical but clear explanation of the growing purchasing power of newly wealth Chinese, thousands of whom are flocking to western shopping malls to buy premium brands. Chinese foreign exchange reserves are also being used to buy up real assets - last week we heard that a Chinese sovereign wealth fund is set to buy nearly 9% of Thames Water.
read more...»Video Resources on Rising Inequality
In this blog entry we will be bringing together some short video resources that might be useful when teaching and studying the economics of inequality. Please do add some more resources using the comment box at the bottom and we can add them to the listing.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Living below the Breadline
This article on the appalling depth of workless households in Liverpool is a reminder of the multiple aspects of relative poverty and economic/social exclusion.
The causes of unemployment are complex - many are structural - but it is hard to draw much if any optimism from reading this article. By some estimates over one third of households in Liverpool have no one in work and second and third generation unemployment is not uncommon. This is a must article for students to read if they want a better awareness of the human cost of non-employment. Read: Below the breadline on Liverpool’s workless estates
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: The Economics of Solar Subsidies
This blog provides a link to a new prezi presentation on the economics of solar subsidies - I have been using it as part of my teaching on aspects of environmental economics for Unit 3 AQA but it might also be useful for unit 1 market failure. I have kept theoretical diagrams out of it and plan to build up relevant analytical concepts such as economies of scale, consumer subsidies, economic and social welfare, government failure et al on a normal whiteboard rather than embed them into the Prezi. I hope it is useful.
Follow the tags at the bottom of the blog entry for more recent articles on solar subsidies such as feed-in-tariffs and other environmental economic resources.
read more...»Inflation - what’s up, what’s down and what’s going to happen next
Just as the Monetary Policy Committee have been saying for a while, inflation is starting to fall back towards their target. The fall to 4.2% in December is rather sharper than expected, and is the biggest monthly fall since April 2009. With further falls almost certain in the next few months as the VAT rise and energy price hikes roll out of the 12-month figures, analysts have commented today that this will leave the opportunity for the MPC to inject further rounds of QE into the economy with less fear of triggering too much demand-pull inflation.
read more...»Indicators of Financial Stability
This mornng the Bank of England published a letter from the Governor to Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee which is discussing financial stability policy. The letter provides some simple indicators that might be used to help monitor financial stability.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Videos on Productivity
Here is a selection of short video clips that might be useful when teaching the economics of productivity as part of the AS macro course. I often start with the “Fast Hands” video clip (one minute only) because it raises all kinds of issues about division of labour and the quality of life of people who do these tasks. And the short 25 second clip on the world’s fastest hand is guaranteed to make a mark! If you have some other videos on productivity to share please leave a link in our comment slot at the bottom of the blog.
The Guardian business web site has this excellent photo stream on life inside the Nissan car factory. Follow them on Twitter
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: France loses her AAA credit rating
It is perhaps a moment of more political than economic significance, but on Friday 13th January 2012 Standard and Poors, a leading credit rating agency announced that France was losing her triple A (AAA) credit rating for sovereign debt. It was part of a larger downgrading of government bonds among a sizeable chunk of Euro Zone countries, the argument being that plans to achieve deficit reduction lacked credibility. France was downgraded, S&P also lowered the long-term ratings on Austria, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia, by one notch. The rating levels for Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain were dropped two notches.
Here is a brief Channel 4 report on the news and some other links to the story. Only four Euro Zone countries now have an AAA rating. Do you know who they are?
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Time to Re-Boot the British Economy
This special blog in the Guardian from Professor Danny Quah of the London School of Economics is superb for Unit 4 students taking their papers in June 2012. in “The UK and the eurozone in the shifting global economy” Professor Quah focuses on many of the underlying difficulties in the UK economy. Digging deeper inside the trade data he finds that, focusing on the UK’s 50 largest trading partners in 2009: 56% of our exports go to the 10 slowest-growing economies in that group. We are missing many opportunities to fully embrace trade and investment with faster-growth countries notably in Africa and Asia.
A note for your diaries if you are within reach of London on Monday 23rd January. Martin Wolf from the FT is speaking on The State of the Global Economy in 2012 - an event not to be missed for fans of his writing and insight. He is speaking along with Jean Michel Severino, nspector general at the French Ministry of Finance. Here are the details.
Newsnight on rebalancing the UK economy
Last night’s edition of Newsnight should be required viewing for all AS and A level economists - and it is a huge shame that it is only available on i-player for another 7 days. Introduced on the shock news that even Tesco is vulnerable to the downturn, it included reports from Andrew Verity looking at whether the British economy will ever wean itself off shopping and the City, and an excellent (and all-female!) discussion including Deborah Meaden and the FT’s Gillian Tett. Try challenging your students to watch and listen to this while noting down every aspect of the syllabus which is mentioned or referred to - that will keep them busy!
There was also a debate between Employment Minister Chris Grayling and disability campaigner Sue Marsh about the government’s welfare reforms, defeated in the House of Lords the night before, and finally Tokyo correspondent Roland Buerk looking at Japanese economic stagnation of the late 1980s and 90s, to consider whether it was a “lost decade” and what could be learnt from it.
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Fiscal Deficit Reduction
How far, how fast and in what way should the UK government seek to cut the annual budget deficit and improve the state of public sector finances? These questions continue to be at the centre of a fierce debate among economists.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Competitive Advantage in Trade (Some Videos)
Here is a selection of short video clips that I use when teaching competitive advantage in markets and when introducing the factors that determine the competitiveness of UK producers in global markets. The focus here is on the UK economy but I will add some more videos to the blog as I work my way through this teaching topic.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: UK Bond Yields Reach Record Lows
The yields on UK government issued bonds has been falling steadily in recent months and, as we turned into January 2012, the yield on ten year government debt edged below 2% - when the UK government continues to borrow eye-wateringly large sums, why are bond yields so low?
The yield on a bond is the income received from a fixed-interest bond, calculated as a percentage of the price paid for it. So a ten year bond bought for £10,000 and paying a fixed annual interest of £600 would offer a yield of £600 / £10,000 = 6.0% per annum.
If the market price of a bond rises - for example, it rises from £10,000 to £12,000, the fixed interest remains the same (£600) but the yield will fall. £600 / £12,000 expressed as a percentage = 5%.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: UK Trade Patterns
The Guardian DataBlog has a superb resource here on the patterns of UK exports and imports in 2011. Ideal for printing out and using when introducing international trade. There is more official UK trade data here
Unit 4 Macro: Does Manufacturing Matter?
Vicky Pryce FRSA has a new article on the economic significance of manufacturing industry for UK economic renewal. It is available here from the January 2012 edition of the RSA Journal. In a related article Sir Christopher Frayling FRSA discusses the rise of the Maker Movement.
Back in November 2011 Channel 4 news ran a special on the future for UK manufacturing here is a link to a related video
