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Economics in the News : Archive for March 2007 The following articles on Economics in the News were published during March 2007 |
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| Open Skies and the Market for Landing Slots | Ownership of take-off and landing slots at the major airports is an important aspect of competition between the airlines in the battle for market share, revenue and profits. British Airways announced this week that it has bought a package of 102 weekly take-off and landing slots at London Heathrow from BMI British Midland at a cost of around £30 million. | ||
| Petrol stations in decline - on the brink of a tipping point? | The number of petrol stations in Britain has been declining since a peak in 1974 and the number of stations is falling by around eight per week to a level of only 9,000. | ||
| Times calls for sea change to European Fishing Policy | There was a terrific editorial in the Times yesterday on the government failure that surrounds the EU common fisheries policy (CFP). The editorial calls for a complete change in the CFP to improve the chances of finding a sustainable future for the North Sea Fishing industry. | ||
| Viral marketing helps Levi to launch reggae reggae sauce | Put some music in your food for me! Levi Roots (his mother calls him Keith!) is enjoying the sweet taste of success as his home-made jerk barbeque sauce “Reggae Reggae Sauce” has been introduced to hundreds of Sainsbury’s stores around the country. Viral marketing will help him fly off the shelves. | ||
| China starts to make the MG two years after Longbridge's demise | Two years after the closure of the MG plant at Longbridge in the West Midland, Nanjing auto have started to produce the MG sports car after the BMW and Rover decided to sell the iconic brand. | ||
| The UK Balance of Payments in 2006 | The figures for UK trade in goods and services in 2006 are out and they show a record trade deficit last year. This blog links to a new revision presentation on the trade figures which brings students and teachers right up to date. Presentation can also be downloaded. | ||
| Biofuels and the soaring world price of corn | This blog focuses on a superb atmospheric four minute BBC audio report from Nils Blythe focuses on the futures market for agricultural commodities in Chicago (USA). You get a real sense of the excitement of the trading pit and an excellent introduction to what is happening to the world price of corn. | ||
| Congratuations to Leeds Grammar School! | Many congratulations to the students of Leeds Grammar School who won the final of the Times / Bank of England TwoPointZero competition in London | ||
| The Case of the Missing Inflation | There are plenty of people who believe that the consumer price index is not an accurate measure of what is happening to the real cost of living for millions of people. This recent BBC Newsnight feature is excellent at discussing the variations in the changing cost of living between different groups in society. | ||
| The UK Economy under Blair - a 10 year perspective | How well has the UK economy performed under Tony Blair's government. This updated presentation takes a look at the evidence. | ||
| Blair set to miss targets for reducing child poverty | Britain has more children living in poor households than virtually every other European country. Reducing the scale and risk of child poverty has been one of the main social objectives of government policy over recent years. In the last Budget Gordon Brown reinforced this aim by announcing increases in the real value of child benefit and extra spending on working tax credits, designed to improve incentives for single parents to find work. New data on households living on below average income suggests that the government still has a mountain to climb in reducing child poverty. | ||
| Ofcom imposes price cuts on the mobile phone operators | The regulators of privatized utilities are often accused of failing to use their power when it comes to monitoring competition and prices in markets where one or more firms have significant monopoly power. Regulatory capture, where the regulator tends to act more in the interests of producers rather than consumers is a cause of government failure. | ||
| Shortlist for Business Journalist of the Year 2007 | We are blessed in this country with a plethora of superb business journalists, rarely a day goes by without there being an excellent comment piece or some analysis worth cutting out and using in our everyday teaching. The shortlist for the 2007 Business Journalist of the Year awards has been released and it contains come familiar and impressive names. I have added some links to some of the shortlisted people. | ||
| Web businesses a double edged sword in rural Wales | Web businesses may bring prosperity to rural Wales, but big firms are less likely to re-invest locally | ||
| Value for Money | As the Climate change debate heats up, a handy reminder of The Copenhagen Consensus to complement the IPCC reports in the media. | ||
| Boom times for John Lewis and Waitrose | Many retailers have been struggling to maintain profits in the face of fierce competition and a slowdown in consumer demand. Many well-known high street businesses have announced profit warnings in recent months including Woolworths and HMV. But staff at the John Lewis Partnership is celebrating their share of a £155m bonus pay-out after a year of record profits | ||
| Britain's economic relations with India and China |
British business is not making full use of its economic strengths to take advantage of the trade and investment opportunities afforded by the strong growth of India and China. That was the message from Lord Swaraj Paul in an address to the Eton College Keynes Society on the 8th of March. | ||
| China overtakes the USA in car production | The Financial Times reported yesterday that China has overtaken the United States in passenger car output for the first time. | ||
| UK Minimum Wage rises by just 17p per hour! | The government has announced that the national minimum age will rise by 17 pence effective from October 2007 to a new rate of £5.52 per hour. At the same time, the youth rate will edge higher by 15p to £4.60 an hour while workers aged 16 and 17 will get a 10p rise to £3.40 an hour. The decision is a disappointment to trade unions who have been lobbying for an increase above the annual rate of inflation and more in line with the growth of average earnings. | ||
| Europe falls further behind the United States | Despite a recent upturn in economic fortunes, the European Union economy continues to lose ground to its main global economic competitors according to new research from Eurochambres (The Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry) | ||
| Stalling stock markets |
What’s going on with the world’s stock markets? What is a stock market? And what does it all mean for firms? | ||
| Happier nations report lower levels of hypertension | New research from Professor Andrew Oswald of Warwick University and Danny Blanchflower, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee has provided fresh interest in the emerging study of the economics of happiness and human welfare. | ||
| Exporting to the world economy raises the productivity of UK businesses | New research by Professor David Greenaway and Dr Richard Kneller, published in the February 2007 issue of the Economic Journal finds that businesses focused on exporting their products to other countries are more likely to improve productivity levels than firms concentrating solely on the domestic market place. | ||
| Is there a future for manufacturing? | The New Statesman has a special feature this week on the future for manufacturing industry. The series of articles can be downloaded in a pdf file. The feature includes a defence of the long term importance of manufacturing from Will Hutton, author of a new book on the Chinese economy "The Writing on the Wall". | ||
| A fresh selection of economics audio-visual from the BBC |
A fresh selection of economics news stories available in audio-visual format from the BBC web site. | ||
| Jeremy Paxman on Blair's legacy for the economy | Here is a link to the BBC 2 Newsnight series of films examining Tony Blair's legacy which begins by looking at the economy. This is a seventeen minute film broadcast on Newsnight in February 2007 exploring the impact of ten years of the Labour government on the UK economy. | ||
| Slovenia and the Euro - part of their destiny? | We were discussing today the issue of whether the new member states of Europe are in sufficiently good economic shape to join the single European currency. Slovenia became the first ex-communist nation to join the Euro in January 2007. This superb BBC report from Mike Donkin provides a superb short piece on how the introduction of the Euro might affect different areas of Slovenian life. | ||
| Three great programmes for Economics and Business | 3 recommendations for radio fans - Analysis, The Price of Property and In Business. | ||
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| Other essential economics resources: | |||
| econoMAX - the Economics Magazine for AS & A2 Economics | |||
| Economics Exam Technique - Guidance from the Examiners | |||
| The UK Economy in a Nutshell | |||
| The European Economy - New Free Resources | |||
| Economics - Student Discussion Board | |||
| GCSE Economics Revision Notes | |||
| AS & A2 Economics Revision Notes | |||
