Readers Question: What would happen if India was the only exporter of gold? India would have a monopoly in the export of gold. Given the recent increase in the price of gold, this would lead to a significant increase in foreign exchange earnings for India. If the export of gold was controlled by India, it …
The Net international investment Position (IIP) measures the balance of gross assets – gross liabilities. An asset means the UK has a claim on the rest of the world. A liability means the rest of the world has a claim on the UK. There are 4 sections of net international investment. direct investment (DI) portfolio …
Readers Question I have read that the UK debt is £920bn to rise to £1.1-£1.2 trillion by next year – if the government cuts are effective. However why is it that the CIA quote UK external Debt as $8.9 trillion… that would be around £5.56trillion…. is this including public sector debt, private sector, government debt …
In one sense the US is facing a debt crisis. The level of government borrowing has risen sharply as a % of GDP, and given current spending commitments, the forecast for borrowing is to continue to grow. Nevertheless, despite disputes over raising debt ceiling, the US doesn’t currently face a crisis like Greece or other …
The idea of a debt ceiling is to place a limit on how much the government can borrow. (you could think of it like a limit on your credit card) For example, in July 2011, the US debt ceiling was $14.3 trillion (£8.8 trillion) The idea of having a debt ceiling is that The government …
Hello. You mention national debt and public sector debt. Are they the same? Yes, the official measures is the public sector net debt. Often people refer to this as the national debt. (there once was an official statistics called national debt, but this was discontinued quite a while back). However, when people talk of national …
Readers Question: What have been the drivers of the mortgage default rate in the 2008 recession compared to the late 1980s/ 1990s? Despite the depth of the recession in 2008, the mortgage default rate in the UK has been lower in the current recession than in the early 1990s. The peak for home repossessions occurred …
Readers Question: I thought of an analogy and wondered if I am correct. Suppose there is a concert venue that seats 10,000 people. On one day, the Rolling Stones are scheduled to perform there. Tickets are nominally $50, but since the venue is likely to sell out, scalpers buy them up. Let’s assume that Rolling …