Blog and updates
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10 Feb 2016
Beer Mergers: Asahi buys Peroni and Grolsch
As part of the AB InBev SABMiller deal, the mega-brewer has been forced to divest itself of some of its brands.
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10 Feb 2016
FT Video: Takeovers Explained
An excellent short resource to use when teaching the economics of business takeovers. n the first part of the new FT video series Finance Decoded, City editor Jonathan Guthrie explains how deal...
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9 Feb 2016
UK GDP grows by 2.2% in 2015
The provisional data shows that the UK economy enjoyed a 12th consecutive quarter of real GDP growth in the final three months of 2015.
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9 Feb 2016
Thirst for Coffee Brews Chronic Supply Shortage
Elementary demand and supply factors at play here: there's the prospect of higher coffee prices. Changing consumer tastes, as artisan coffee houses become the norm in cities such as London, mean...
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9 Feb 2016
UK Trade in Goods Deficit reaches new record in 2015
A familiar refrain: the trade deficit remains a problem and so it proves once again in the 4th quarter of 2015: the annual deficit widened by £1.9bn to a record £125bn, with the quarter registering...
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9 Feb 2016
Julian Assange, rational choice theory, and the game of Go
IS JULIAN Assange rational? There are no prizes for guessing the responses of most readers to this question. He faces questioning over allegations (which he denies) in Sweden, and he claims that...
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9 Feb 2016
Can a new currency help Somalia
In a country where no new bank notes have been printed for over 39 years, can a new currency help Somalia to re-establish a financial system to support growth and help lift people out of extreme...
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8 Feb 2016
The impact of trade and globalisation
There is a great analytical piece on the impact of trade on the Economist website from the weekend. In particular, it examines the impact of imports into the US from China on US manufacturing.
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7 Feb 2016
Cartels: The Quebec Maple Syrup Cartel
Quebec has 7,500 mostly family-run farms – who produce 70% of world supply of maple syrup. Since 1990 producers have been required to hand over the bulk of what they produce to the Federation of...
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7 Feb 2016
Chinese Economic Reform - An Overview
These are pivotal times for the Chinese economy. Structural reforms of their institutions, labour and financial markets are high on the agenda of the Chinese government and many of them are seen as...
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7 Feb 2016
Grimsby - The Renewable Capital of Britain
A blustery hat tip to Matt Smith for spotting this superb contextual example in the Independent of the partial economic renaissance being seen in the east coast port of Grimsby.
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7 Feb 2016
Halting the Yuan slide - Reserves dim sum
Armed with a huge stock of reserves of foreign currency, the People's Bank of China has been intervening heavily in a bid to soften the downward slide in the external value of the Yuan. The BBC...
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7 Feb 2016
Economists must never ignore the human factor
Several members of the Tutor2u teacher community have alerted me to this excellent, thought-provoking article from Tim Garton-Ash on the challenges to Economics as an academic discipline nearly ten...
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7 Feb 2016
Chinese slowdown - the human cost for migrant workers
This video from Reuters highlights the precarious existence of migrant workers as the Chinese economy slows down: as the piece highlights, workers are increasingly seen as criminals rather than...
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7 Feb 2016
Falling oil prices and disappearing rigs
This BBC article puts the impact of low oil prices in a Scottish context, suggesting that the current price levels are such that a number of rigs are going to be shut down in the near future. This,...
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7 Feb 2016
Market Failure and Behavioural Policies - Research Assignment
A seasonal hat tip to my colleagues in the economics department at school for this tremendous idea for a slightly different research project to promote independent learning and stronger evaluation...
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6 Feb 2016
Argentina looks to re-enter world capital markets
The new government in Argentina has made an offer to the hedge funds holding heavily discounted Argentinian sovereign debt in a bid to resolve the long-running dispute between Argentina and western...
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5 Feb 2016
Are economics degrees fit for purpose?
The Post-Crash Economics Society (PCES) has produced a report condemning the state of economics teaching in many universities, supported by economists at the Bank of England - less of the...
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5 Feb 2016
Zambian economy and the OCR F585 paper
As part of the Beyond the Bike project, I have been putting together learning resources to support the BtB journey - but many of these are also useful for teachers covering the OCR F585 June 2016...
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5 Feb 2016
TPP is signed! What do trade agreements do?
The signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement in Auckland, New Zealand in February 2016 raises once again the topical issue of trade agreements and their economic and social benefits...
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