Blog and updates
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1 Jan 2024
New Global Profits Tax for 2024
140 countries have agreed from 1st January 2024, to apply an effective tax rate of at least 15 per cent on corporate profits.
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29 Dec 2023
Royal Mail losing market share in the contestable parcels industry
The privatised Royal Mail is losing market share to scaled rivals according to data for 2022 published by Pitney Bowes. The industry is an oligopoly - the top four carriers in the UK (Royal Mail,...
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29 Dec 2023
UK House Prices Fall 1.8% in 2023
House prices fell by nearly 2 per cent during 2023 according to the Nationwide leaving the average price at £257,000. Even with this drop in prices, the FT reports that a deposit paid by a typical...
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27 Dec 2023
Financial Times - Bank Failures in 2023
The Financial Times has this excellent in-depth video exploring some of the bank failures that happened in 2023 and casting a critical eye on the wider fragility of the banking system as we head...
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27 Dec 2023
Angola Leaves the OPEC Cartel
Angola is leaving the Opec oil cartel following an output quota row. Their crude oil production has been in long-term decline and they have opposed OPEC's attempts to cut their base-line quota.
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22 Dec 2023
Robert Solow: Ninety-Nine Years of Economic Wisdom
A towering giant of modern Economics, Professor Bob Solow, has passed away at the age of 99. I was taught the Solow Model as a student at Cambridge and I have continued to teach and refer to it...
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20 Dec 2023
Somalia to rejoin global financial system after securing debt-relief deal
This IMF video clip looks at how the IMF and World Bank have approved HIPC status for Somalia, eradicating 90% of the economy's external debt, or $4.5bn, allowing for greater government spending on...
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19 Dec 2023
Scottish Government Raises Taxes for Higher Earners
The Scottish government has increased marginal tax rates for higher-earners and frozen tax allowances creating some fiscal drag effects along the way. The government has announced a new marginal...
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18 Dec 2023
UK to introduce a Carbon Border Tax in 2027
A key environmental intervention is set to come into force in 2027, a year later than the planned EU carbon border tax which will start in 2026. The news is reported here in the Guardian.
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18 Dec 2023
In the News Teaching Activity – Is Christmas 2023 likely to be a merry one for retailers? A gloomy tale of consumer spending (Dec 2023)
The Economics Observatory have taken a closer look as the factors that have influenced consumer spending in recent years and considers how retailers are likely to be affected.
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15 Dec 2023
Externalities and Development: Mexico's Yucatán Railway Project
The BBC reports here on one of Mexico's biggest-ever infrastructure projects - the Yucatan railway mega-project which is designed to lift growth and development but is already three times over...
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15 Dec 2023
Economics Weekly Quiz | 15 December 2023
Here's our final weekly economics news quiz of 2023. Have a great christmas and new year!
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14 Dec 2023
Record Debt Puts Developing Countries in Crisis
The World Bank has warned that higher interest rates are going to imperil the developmental prospects of many low income countries, by increasing debt repayments and, ultimately, increasing debt...
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14 Dec 2023
2023 King’s Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition Winners Announced
We were delighted to support the inaugural King’s College Cambridge Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition so ably run by Rhys Williams. This weekend the winners journeyed to Cambridge for a...
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14 Dec 2023
In the News Teaching Activity – More cash transactions to help people manage their finances as the cost-of-living rise bites (Dec 2023)
Over the past decade, people have used fewer notes and coins for transactions, but now there is an increase in cash use again.
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13 Dec 2023
New Kahoot Quizzes on Market Failure
We are busy adding new Kahoot quizzes to the tutor2u channel. Three new quizzes have been created covering aspects of market failure.
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13 Dec 2023
Thames Water - Financial Crisis Deepens
This story speaks of the flawed nature of water privatisation, a scandalous lack of regulatory oversight, and the horrific misalignment of incentives.
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12 Dec 2023
De-Globalisation: World economy on brink of ‘cold war two'
The Deputy Director of the IMF, Gita Gopinath, has suggested that a move away from globalisation and an economic Cold War based on US and Chinese power blocs has the potential to wipe trillions of...
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11 Dec 2023
In the News Teaching Activity – Unprecedented net migration into the UK (Dec 2023)
Ed Conway, Economics correspondent at Sky News, does a deep dive into the recent data showing high net migration figures.
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10 Dec 2023
West African Generating Project Energises Growth
This World Bank clip looks at the development of a massive electricity generating project in West Africa, with the building of an advanced electricity network spanning the region, linking a power...
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