International Issues

Stephanomics

A brief heads up for a new series on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow- Stephanomics. BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders takes her popular blog to radio form. In the first episode tomorrow at 3pm she discusses the current global financial crisis with a range of experts from the field. Should be worth a listen.

Marketing Condoms

A short but fascinating TED talk entitled ‘Selling Condoms in Congo’ looks at a key development issue, AIDS, from the marketing persepctive.

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Does Democracy Stifle Economic Growth?

To spice up the possibly mundane lesson on Production Possibility Frontier’s I made use of this fantastic TED talk by Yasheng Huang.

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Whisky IA?

IB students should always be on the lookout for suitable articles to complete their internal assessment. This alcohol related piece from the BBC website is ideal.

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The Economic Benefits of the Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup kicked off this morning with an impressive victory for the hosts but what are the economic benefits of hosting such an event?

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The New IB Economics Course (4)- Macroeconomics

The major changes to the macroeconomics course are as follows…

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Pressure for higher minimum wages in Bangladesh

This BBC news video looks at demands for better pay among the three million or more workers (the majority of whom are women) who work in garment factories in Bangladesh. The country has over 4,000 textile factories and has become one of the world’s biggest exporters of clothing. But for many the jobs available offer long hours and very low pay of around $25 dollars a week - the trade unions are lobbying for average wages three times this figure. Will it threaten the competitive advantage of Bangladeshi producers looking to hold onto contracts from many western buyers?

The video is a good resource to use when teaching aspects of labour markets and globalisation in developing countries

US trade deficit widens to $42.3 billion in May

The U.S. trade deficit widened in May to the highest level in 18 months as a rebounding economy pushed up demand for imports of foreign-made cars, computers and clothing.

The Commerce Department says the trade deficit increased 4.8 percent to $42.3 billion, the largest imbalance since November 2008. American exports of goods and services rose 2.4 percent but this increase was outpaced by a 2.9 percent rise in imports.

American manufacturing has been a standout performer so far in this recovery, benefiting from a global economic recovery. But the concern is that export sales will be hurt by the European debt crisis, which has dampened growth prospects in Europe.

Life in North Korea - a remarkable BBC report

Sue Lloyd-Roberts has produced some remarkable reports for television over the years. Few can be as impressive as the ones available on BBC Our World and BBC Newsnight tracking her time in North Korea. She tries to gain an insight into the daily existence of people in North Korea and, despite the constant presence of government minders and security officials, she discovers private markets which for many can be the difference between a meagre life and starvation. The North Korean authorities refuse to acknowledge the existence of these markets but they are the inevitable result of the complete failure of the state planning system. She meets some North Korean defectors who are still coming to terms with the ultimate culture shock.

These video reports are remarkable and will make ideal teaching resources when discussing economic systems, living standards and markets.

Here are some links to Sue Lloyd-Roberts’ reports

Glimpses of real North Korean life behind the facade
Sampling North Korea’s version of the internet
N Korean defectors on the ultimate culture shock

The Age of Instability

David Smith, economics editor of The Sunday Times and author of Free Lunch has just had his latest offering published- The Age of Instability.

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Drinking Water

The Economist Daily Chart is always an excellent source of data, especially in terms of development economics.

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UK Air Pollution

A report from Sky News this morning really caught my attention. Air pollution in the UK kills 50,000 people per year. The negative externalities of poor air conditions include increased asthma cases, heart disease and respiratory diseases. Some MPs are becoming increasingly critical of the government for their apparent lack of action, quite rightly given the huge number of victims.

The Final Countdown

The pressure is really on now with the final IB Economics papers only a matter of weeks away. During the coming weeks I will be posting daily revision blogs for both Higher and Standard level candidates. These will be a mixture of quizzes, presentations and revision sheets to aid your preparation. I will also be linking current economic news stories to the IB syllabus, remember that your examiners will be looking for your economic theory to be backed up by lots of real world examples. Do get in touch with any topics you would especially like covered, I will endeavour though to cover theory from all sections of the course.

Introducing free trade, protectionism and globalisation.

This 14 minute video from Alex Tabarrok will get students into a great discussion on free trade and protectionism and is an excellent resource to refer back to when teaching tariffs and quotas and then globalisation.

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The ECB

I have just finished a Higher Level Economics lesson with my U6th where we have been discussing the role of the ECB. Whilst putting together material for the lesson I discovered some superb video clips from the ECB website that provide an excellent insight into the history of the bank, its current role, policy tools, remit and future direction.

The About the ECB clip always provides some excellent material to spark a discussion on the arguments in favour of the single currency.

We finished the lesson in a light hearted way by watching the price stability cartoon. My students were especially amused by the inflation and deflation monsters!

IB Higher Economics - Improving your Exam Skills

Here is a streamed version of the presentation I gave to the Hong Kong CPD day, focusing on how IB Economics students can improve their evaluation skills:

Improving Evaluation Skills

Soros launches new economic think tank

For many years the billionaire George Soros has been a trenchant critic of neo-liberal free market fundamentalism. He has developed his own theory of reflexivity - a variant on behavioural economics thinking - which stresses the importance of perceptions in markets and powerful feedback effects. The FT describes his theory as one where ’ financial markets tend to influence perceptions of reality, which in turn feed back into markets.’

Now Soros has announced that he is putting $50m into a new think tank - the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) - one of the aims is a moving away from the dominance of high level mathematics in university courses (a seriously good move in my opinion) towards giving students stronger insights in behavioural traits and the importance of politics and history in driving how people operate in real markets. According to Soros “The (economic) dogma has lost touch with reality.”

NET’s founding Advisory Board members include Nobel laureates George Akerlof (famous for his work on the market for lemons and asymmetric information) and Sir James Mirrlees, Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz, Willem Buiter (from the LSE) Ian Goldin (seen here giving a talk at TED) Charles Goodhart (creator of Goodhart’s law)  Anatole Kaletsky (arch-contrarian from the Times) John Kay (from the FT) global economics experts Ken Rogoff and Jeffrey Sachs. Quite a powerful list of people - all of whom are never happy to accept the conventional wisdom.

This is an economics think tank worth keeping a weather eye on.

Bye Bye Big Mac

Iceland will say “bless” to the only 3 MacDonald’s restaurants in the country. The only franchisee in Iceland said it had become too expensive to operate the restaurants after Iceland’s currency, the krona, plunged in value.

The fluctuating currency has seen a great change over the last 10 months. In January 2008, it cost more than 95 Icelandic krona to buy one euro and on Tuesday that exchange rate shot up to more than 186 krona.

 

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Navigating our global future

Ian Goldin speaking at the TED conference in Oxford in 2009. A short but deeply interesting talk about globalisation and some of the systemic risks and systemic shocks that are likely to become more virulent.

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The Rise of China and new Modernities

Martin Jacques address to the Royal Society of the Arts is available to view from their website.

Brazil taxes hot money to control her currency

Carl Mortished’s excellent world business briefing in the Times today covers developments in the Brazilian economy. Huge inflows of foreign direct investment have helped to drive their currency higher and the Brazilian Finance Ministry has responded with a 2 per cent capital tax on foreign ‘hot money’ inflows into stocks and bonds.  The article suggests that Brazil might be better off in the long run by cutting import tariffs on capital goods thus reducing the price of imports of hi-tech machinery that will give her economy a major supply-side boost. In contrast to China, Brazil exports a relatively low percentage of her national output and it is largely self sufficient. The country has enjoyed a significant improvement in her terms of trade with strong world prices for many of her key exported commodites such as iron ore, coffee and orange juice. The boom in commodity exports has helped to increase the real purchasing power of millions of Brazil’s poorest people but a huge amount remains to be done and income and wealth inequalities are vast.

“Brazil is not China; it does not trade that much. Where China’s motor is manufacturing exports, Brazil is largely a self-sufficient economy, more like the United States, with a vast hinterland of eager, albeit poor, consumers.”

Here is his article

Cheltenham Saturday 10th October

Last night I was looking through the brochure for this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival. Aside from it having a cracking range of speakers it is also my home town so I always look to go back for a day. This year Saturday 10th October looks a great shout.

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Summer Reading

I have just read a light hearted piece in The Telegraph about ‘summer reading’.

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Decline in German Beer Sales

The BBC reports today that the Germans have drunk less beer this year!

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Towels at the Ready

Thomas Cook is offering Germans the opportunity to pre-book sun loungers before they arrive at their hotel on their holiday. The tour operator is offering tourists the chance to pay in advance for a poolside lounger when they book a Mediterranean package holiday, The offer is open to Germans only and they can pre-book a spot by the pool for 3 euros a day. Hotels in Turkey, Egypt and the Canary Islands have signed up. Thomas Cook hopes the scheme will end the perceived “beach towel wars”. Towel wars may still occur during the summer months though as this offer is only available on winter holidays.

There is a further article on this in today’s Telegraph.

Botox Tax

I have just read on the front of The Telegraph that American’s wishing to have cosmetic surgery could be hit with a tax to help part fund Obama’s $1trillion reform of the US health system.

 

 

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Holiday Dilemma

There was a fantastic edition of The Moral Maze last night on Radio 4. If you get the time it is well worth a listen. Having just returned from a break in rainy Devon I felt rather smug!

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Japanese Fishing Industry

Yesterday I revisited some childhood memories by going crab fishing! After a frustrating start we mastered the knack and the crabs were lured in by our quality bacon bait. We rewarded ourselves with a crab sandwich and a pint or two of local cider for lunch!

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Quick Quiz (6)

A quick 10 questions from section 4 (International economics).

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Desperate Times for Spanish Unemployed

Whilst reading The Sunday Times today I came across this article that highlights the ever increasing problem of rising Spanish unemployment. Unemployed Spanish workers are resorting to desperate measures to make ends meet by selling their kidneys in return for much needed funds. Although depressing by nature it does highlight the social cost of unemployment and would be a unique article to base a coursework portfolio piece on.

A River for Unused Ships

An interesting piece on the BBC website this morning examining how the fall in global trade has forced many ship owners to take their ships off the sea an mothball them at ports.

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Singapore Gloom

Singapore is in the midst of a serious downturn. The economy shrank by 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months. Its biggest ever quarterly contraction.

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Eastern European economies under pressure

Here is a link to a revision presentation on some of the current macroeconomic challenges facing eastern European countries who have joined the EU single market over the last five years.

Around the World in 80 Trades

If you are heading off for an Easter break it may be worth setting you video for a new series that begins on Channel 4 this Thursday at 10pm- Around the World in 80 Trades.

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Pupils on the Credit Crunch

In the lead up to the G20 schools from around the world have been discussing the financial crisis and how they have been directly or indirectly affected by it. This looks like a great project for IB teachers and students to get involved with.

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The UK Banking Crisis in 76 Seconds

An excellent 76 second video clip of the UK banking crisis from the Daily Politics Show website. A good lesson opener to a review of the credit crunch. Remember IB examiners love to see the use of real world economic examples.

The Swiss Economic Outlook

The Swiss economy will shrink by 2.2% this year, a much deeper recession than first forecast by its government.

 

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Global Biz Worksheet

A work sheet to be used with Peter Day latest edition of Global Biz (on Fairtrade) that I highlighted in my blog yesterday.

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IB Economics Week 7

The week 7 revision ticklist for U6th IB economists and teachers.

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Follow up Resources African Slowdown

I have created some additional resources to be used alongside the ‘African Slowdown” blog.

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African Slowdown

Although not at the heart of the current economic crisis the winds of the current storm are beginning to be felt on African shores.

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Great New Blog for Development Economics

A fantastic new resource from the BBC that promises to be full of development economics.

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Bridge to Sicily

In an attempt to boost Italian economic performance the Italian govenment has revived plans to build a bridge linking mainland Italy to Sicily.

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Exam Question Resources

Alongside the revision worksheets for IB students and teachers I will also be developing a bank of suggested answers for past IB exam questions.

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Development Economics Book

One again this week The Sunday Times Culture section has a review of a book that may be of interest to students and teachers currently covering the development economics section of the IB syllabus.

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Marshall-Lerner and the J Curve

A revision worksheet for the higher level topic (Section 4.7) the J-Curve and Marshall-Lerner condition.

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IB Economics Week 6

The week 6 revision ticklist for IB U6th economists

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