Blog and updates
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11 Sept 2022
Business Objectives - Will British Gas cap profits to cut energy bills?
This news from British Gas might prompt classroom debate about the theory of the firm, and the objectives of a business.
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11 Sept 2022
UK Economy - Why low business investment matters
A recent chart in the Financial Times showed UK business investment staying low in real terms and lagging well behind the trend growth from 2009 through to 2016.
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11 Sept 2022
Building Climate Resilience in Bangladesh
This UN clip looks at how climate change represents a fundamental threat to Bangladesh's developmental prospects, and how investment in enhancing climate resilience has made the coastal zone safer...
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7 Sept 2022
OFGEM director calls for two-tier energy market to improve affordability
A former director of OFGEM, Christine Farnish argues here that the regulator "favoured suppliers over consumers", implying that there's been a degree of regulatory capture.
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7 Sept 2022
Exchange rates - Pound falls to lowest level against dollar since 1985
The day's big economic story is about the pound falling to its lowest level against the dollar for nearly 40 years, and you need to think about the macroeconomic implications of this - they aren't...
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7 Sept 2022
Labour Market - More minority ethnic than white workers paid below UK real living wage
Evidence of discrimination in the labour market? The Living Wage Foundation data reported here would imply this - although a lot of the data is anecdotal.
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7 Sept 2022
Cost of Living Crisis - Boots debuts 'Everyday' budget essentials range
Boots is launching a budget range, with everything priced below £1.50. It is a good applied example of how businesses adapt to the prevailing economic climate real incomes falling and recessionary...
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6 Sept 2022
UK government attempts to defend their record on sewage discharges
This article from The Guardian looks at the failure of water companies to tackle the issue of sewage discharges into the UK's oceans, and touches on a range of issues, most obviously the negative...
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6 Sept 2022
Scotland introduces rail and rent freeze
The powers of the devolved Scottish government are limited, but here is an example of additional forms of government intervention to help offset the cost of living crisis.
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6 Sept 2022
Should energy profits be subject to a tax raid?
Alex Lawson looks at the case for the government imposing a windfall tax on the UK energy companies, which seems increasingly likely, given the proposed freeze on energy bills that seems to be in...
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5 Sept 2022
Horizontal Integration - Vistry Group and Countryside to merge in £1.3bn deal
Vistry Group (formerly Bovis Homes) and Countryside are set to merge in a deal that will create one of the largest house-builders in the UK construction industry.
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5 Sept 2022
Cost of Living Crisis - Should all households get some free energy?
The left-leaning New Economics Foundation have put forward some proposals to tackle the energy crisis, and they're more radical than most.
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4 Sept 2022
Economics and Business Summer News Quiz (2022)
I've put together this economics and business quiz and will be using with my own students this week to see who has been keeping up to date with the news!
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4 Sept 2022
Kent Brewer left with just one EU customer after Brexit
The Old Dairy Brewery in Kent, which featured in a promotional video about the opportunities of Brexit has seen the value of its beer exports drop from £600,000 to £2,000 as it now only has one EU...
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3 Sept 2022
Supply shock - UK carbon dioxide price quadruples
A classic of the genre, with the quadrupling of carbon dioxide prices having lots of interesting economics implications, largely because of the derived demand for carbon dioxide.
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3 Sept 2022
Bus fares in England to be capped at £2 per journey for 3 months
The Transport Minister, Grant Shapps, has announced that bus fares are going to be capped at £2 per single journey for three months from January 2023.
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2 Sept 2022
Zambia secures emergency support from the IMF
Having come to the aid of Sri Lanka, the IMF has turned its attention to bailing out Zambia, a country with a financial crisis of its own, and similarly high debt levels.
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2 Sept 2022
Inter-connections that help explain the crisis
This BBC clip from the excellent Ros Atkins looks at how the cost of living has been precipitated by a variety of factors - climate change, Covid and Russia's war in Ukraine - all of which have...
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1 Sept 2022
Economics Weekly Quiz | 02 September 2022
It's back! Our weekly economics quiz returns for the start of a new term.
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