Newsnight’s Economics Editor Paul Mason was on fine form last week with a set of short reports on how the economic and financial crisis has affected the UK and Global economy. Both are between five and six minutes long and I showed them to my A2 students as a prompt for discussion and also to an able AS set who are still dipping their toes in the macroeconomic waters! The features allowed us to discuss (at AS level) the inter-connected nature of the world economy (for example the need to re-balance demand and trade between the USA and China) and also to consider the reasons for and consequences of the huge rise in public sector spending and borrowing.

For AS economics I have deliberately left introductory stuff on the circular flow until we have kicked around ideas and arguments about the recession - causes, effects and ways out of the downturn.

Here are the links to Paul Mason’s three video reports from last week:

Aftershock - Impact on the UK

Aftershock - Impact on the World

Aftershock - Has ideology changed?