October 2015 will see England introduce a charge of 5p for plastic bags. Early evidence from Scotland suggests that a tax on plastic bags can lead to a significant fall in demand. Supermarkets in Scotland reported an 80% fall in use of plastic bags a month after the charge was introduced. (Times). A study in …
The ONS produce an RPI pensioner index which is the inflation rate calculated for the spending patterns of the average pensioner. The series is here: RPI Pensioner index CZIT – Percentage change over 12 months: One-person pensioner households index. CZJI – Percentage change over 12 months – Two-person pensioner households index Why do pensioners have …
When I moved to Oxford in 1995, I don’t remember seeing any coffee shops apart from the odd independent coffee/tea houses. There was no major chain like – Starbucks, Costa, Coffee Republic. Now in 2010, I can visualise at least 10 off the top of my head. Costa coffee shops seem to be springing up …
These are a few interesting graphs which give different perspective on the same situation. i.e. recent economic recoveries – looking at both UK and Spain. Firstly, UK economic growth in the past four years. After weak / negative growth in 2011 and 2012, the UK has been growing at a quarterly rate of approx 0.6%. …
Some of the economic policies of J.Corbyn ‘Corybnomics’ include: Ending austerity / more relaxed rules on budget deficits. People’s Quantitative easing ‘Corbyn’s Quantitative Easing’ Higher taxes on high income earners Renationalisation of railways / energy sector National investment bank / funded by removing corporate subsidies / People’s Q.E. Ending Austerity A frequent economic criticism of …
Zero hour contracts means that workers are employed without any guarantee about the amount of work they will gain. In the past decade, the numbers working on zero hour contracts has significantly increased from 100,000 in 2000 to over 700,000 in 2015. This now accounts for approx. 2.4% of the workforce. 41% of people on …
Readers question: Does the government determine the interest rate for their bonds? The government finances its debt by selling bonds on the open market. (in the UK they are termed gilts) In the UK, government debt is managed by the UK Debt Management Office DMO. They sell gilts on behalf of the government. Initially, they …
I have spent all summer writing updated revision guides for the new syllabus which starts this September for first exam in June 2016. I have now finished the AS revision guides for four exam boards AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC (Welsh exam). Even at AS level, there is some variation in syllabus. So far, feedback …