Questions on Public Debt

The UK ‘Public sector Debt’ is now approximately £800 billion (July 2009 – ) Question: Who do we owe it to? People and financial institutions who bought the UK bonds and gilts. These are mainly financial bodies such as pension funds, investment trusts. The irony is that many people in the UK who have private …

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Baltic Dry Index Explained

The Baltic Dry Index is a measure of the international price for sending commodities by sea. It is calculated by combining the price of different shipping sizes for dry commodities. Commodities include metals, grains, crude oil. The Baltic Dry Index developed in the mid-eighteenth century.  It gained the name Baltic Dry index partly because at …

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How Debt Consolidation Works

In a recent post, UK personal debt, we looked at why UK debt had fallen for the first time since records began. Nevertheless, personal debt is still over £1.45 billion. Within this debt are many overburdened with debt from a variety of sources from personal loans to credit cards and store cards. Debt consolidation is a way to integrate all loans into a single payment. There are pros and cons to these schemes. It may be suitable for people in certain situations. But, it is good to get impartial advice before undertaking such a scheme. Unfortunately, financial literacy in the UK is often quite poor. I feel personal finance would make an excellent subject to be taught at school.

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Mobile Phone Market

T-Mobile and Orange mobile phones have stated that they intend to merge to form a new mobile phone company. The merging of brands will take over 18 months as they decide which brand to promote. Currently, the market share of the four leading mobile phone providers is O2 27% Vodafone 25% Orange 22% T-Mobile 15% …

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Starting Economics

Today, is the first day of term for my students. A few are in their second year. A few are doing retakes and a few are studying economics for the first time. For many students, taking economics can be challenging because it is a subject they haven’t studied before. There are quite a few new …

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Benefits of Low Personal Debt

Readers Question. what is the benefit to a country having low personal debt??…apart from fear that people wud default what else? A low level of personal debt has various advantages. Typically saving rates will be higher. This enables more investment in the economy. If banks are lending to consumers for personal debt, it means that, …

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20 Mph Speed Limits – Cost Benefit Analysis

After returning from New York last Monday, I’ve been met by a barrage of 20mph signs around Oxford. Most roads in the city centre have been limited to 20mph. As both a cyclist and driver, what are the costs and benefits of this decision? Benefits of 20mph Zones Slower speed of cars will make cycling …

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Bank and Financial Liquidity

This shows the ratio of liquid assets relative to total assets. It shows that in 2008, banks had a very low % of liquid assets to total assets. A liquid asset is something that can easily be converted into cash. An illiquid asset is something like a house, it is worth money, but takes time …

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