Google Wave: Trade deficits and surpluses
We were back on Wave last night considering some of the wider arguments surrounding persistent trade imbalances. Are trade imbalances a problem?
We are hoping that - as more Economics teachers migrate to Google Wave - we will be able to schedule collaborative sessions (typically lasting between 45 to 60 minutes) where we can generate ideas, arguments and perspectives in real time and support eachother’s teaching on chosen topics or issues.
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Warning - Businesses at Risk from Economic Recovery
An excellent recent article in the ACCA magazine examines an interesting phenomenon - more businesses collapse at the beginning of a recovery than during the depths of a recession. Its all to do with working capital…
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Kindlenomics
Amazon has announced that it will start shipping the Kindle e-reader in the next few days. Leander McCormick-Goodhart is doubtful about whether this spells the end of books. The Kindle device is part of an increasingly contestable market space whose size is set to rise sharply in the months and years to come. I have added a few links to Leander’s blog post. According to Chris Nuttall in an FT blog last month “there are now more than 45 e-reader models available worldwide, according to E Ink, the dominant technology provider for their displays.”
read more...»The UK Economy - a Long Run Perspective
We tend to focus on short run changes in output, jobs, prices and profits and risk missing the long term picture of where an economy is. A year ago I produced this chartroom presentation as the UK economy entered recession - this has now been updated and might be useful for colleagues helping students develop an appreciation of the long-run trends in key UK economic data. It is available for download in pdf and scorn-compliant VLE format.
Launch streamed revision presentation on the Long Run Perspective
Download SCORM-compliant VLE ZIP version
Download printable pdf handout version
Explaining Creative Destruction
Leander McCormick-Goodhart provides an overview of the concept of creative destruction
read more...»A2 Micro Multiple Choice Quiz
A ten question multiple choice quiz on aspects of introductory theory of the firm can be found here
Launch interactive version of the quiz
Download SCORM-VLE Zip file (import to your VLE)
Rated: (3/5), based on 2 reviews
Marx and the labour theory of value
The latest extract from Edmund Conway’s new book “50 Economic Ideas” looks at the work of Karl Marx and in particular the validity of his labour theory of value
“At the heart of Marx’s theories was the labour theory of value. This idea, laid out in Das Kapital (1867), states that a commodity is worth the amount of time it takes for someone to make it. So, for instance, a jacket that takes twice as long as a pair of trousers to stitch and sew ought to be worth twice as much. However, he argued, those who ran companies pocketed disproportionate amounts of the profits themselves. The reason bosses get away with this, Marx argued, is that they own the means of production and so are able to exploit their workers.There are question marks over how well the labour theory of value holds up. However, the broad thrust remains undiminished: that there is a major divide between the wealth and opportunity of those who own land and capital and of those who do not.”
The rest of the article can be found here
Keynes and the Multiplier Effect
I am cross-posting Jon’s excellent blog on Keynes and the multiplier over at his excellent IB Blog that flags up some handy recent articles on this important macro policy concept:
The Telegraph continues with it series of extracts from Edmund Conway’s new book and today it focuses on the twentieth centuries greatest economist John Maynard Keynes.
In its simplest form Keynesianism argues that governments should be proactive during economic downturns rather than relying upon the power of the markets and interest rate cuts. Proactive in the sense that the government should borrow money and start spending. The doctrine lost favour in the 1970s as monetarist theory gained popularity. As you will be well aware Keynes has returned in earnest over the past 18 months as governments across the globe have pumped billions into the spluttering economies in the hope of restarting them. Although early days there are tentative signs that Keynes may have be right once again.
Key to his argument of the effectiveness of pumping money into an economy is that of the multpier. Conway provides an excellent overview of the multiplier in his piece today:
Say the US government orders a $10bn (£6bn) aircraft carrier. You might assume the effect of this would be merely to pump $10bn into the US economy. Under the multiplier argument, the actual effect would be bigger. The shipbuilder takes on more employees and generates more profits; its workers spend more on consumer goods. Depending on the average consumer’s “propensity to consume”, this could raise total economic output by far more than the amount of public money actually injected.
If the $10bn increase caused total United States economic output to rise by $5bn, the multiplier would be 0.5; if it rose by $15bn, the multiplier would be 1.5.
The article also provides some good points that students could use when being critical of fiscal policy (these were particuarly prevalent when monetarists were arguing against Keynesianism in the 1970s):
One of their main arguments was that governments cannot “fine-tune” an economy by regularly adjusting fiscal and monetary policy to keep employment high. There is simply too long a time lag between recognising the need for such a policy (tax cuts, say) and the policy taking effect. Even if policy-makers speedily identify the problem, it takes time for laws to be drafted and passed, and more time still for the tax cuts actually to drip through the wider economy.
There are a couple of recently published books on Keynes that you may want to get your teeth into:
Keynes: Return of the Master by R Skidelsky
Keynes: The Twenthieth Century Most Influential Economist by P Clarke
Smart Phones - Smart Money for Apple and RIM
Feature rich smart phones such as the iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry account for a disproportionate share of the operating profits of mobile phone manufacturers.
According to new research by Deutsche Bank, Apple and Research In Motion were responsible for 3% of all cellphones sold in the world last year but 35% of operating profits. In 2009 the figures are forecast to be 5% of the global market in unit terms but 58% of total operating profits. Together Apple and RIM had about 32% of the smart-phone market. Nokia dominates the basic mobile phone handset market where operating margins are much thinner.
The key to understanding the huge profits of smart phone makers is the subsidy offered by the mobile phone network providers who tend to treat mobile handsets as loss-leaders. They are happy to sell a phone for £60 or less because they can recoup the money and more through lucrative monthly call plans where the bulk of users (consumers) are locked in through minimum length of service contracts.
Palm Inc is trying to break into the cell-phone market and take some of the supernormal profits available.
Economics Snapshot - Tesco and Competition
*Tesco has a 31 per cent share of the UK grocery market
*It is the dominant supermarket in 72% of Britain’s 121 post-codes
*In April 2009 Tesco reported a 10 per cent rise in underlying annual pre-tax profits to £3.13bn
*Annual sales were £59bn
Source: The Times (17-07-09) and the Financial Times (04-09)
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