Readers Question: How about the case of cost push inflation like that of China? there’s high inflation and yet the economy is not operating at its full level of employment and due to the fact that its exchange rate is fixed, monetary policies would not be effective but fiscal policies would further increase unemployment. What …
Ireland has introduced an interesting law, which has placed a 15 cent tax on the plastic bag. Combined with an advertising campaign to make the plastic bag unacceptable, use has fallen between 90-94%. Within a few weeks, there was a visual improvement in the number of plastic bags littering the environment. Other countries such as …
Although, the government has tried for several months to avoid this option, Alastair Darling admitted that the government had decided to nationalise the beleaguered bank Northern Rock. It means the government is responsible for over £100m of mortgages and savings. What Nationalisation Means Shareholders are likely to get very little in compensation. They have threatened …
Readers Question: Which businesses are likely to benefit from a recovery in the housing market? I think it is a little premature to talk of a recovery in the housing market. But, nevertheless when there is a recovery in the housing market the following firms will benefit. House Builders. At the moment there is a …
Readers Question: Interest rates are determined by the markets and not by the Bank of England-where’s the truth? An interesting question. Firstly, it is worth bearing in mind that there are different interest rates in an economy. Bank of England Base Rate. This is the most important interest rate because it is the rate at …
It is interesting to note that Ken Livingstone has introduced a higher rate of the London congestion charge for cars which have high levels of fuel consumption (band G vehicles, which emit more than 225g of carbon dioxide per km) These are said to make up 15% of cars. It is clear that the policy …
I asked my Economics students to conduct a questionnaire, asking people in the street various questions about Economics. One Question was: What do You consider to be the Most Serious economic problem Facing the UK at the moment. These are the most popular responses to far. House Prices (50% of responses) Government Debt Ignorance because …
An interesting development is Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo. This would be one of the biggest mergers, and change the nature of the internet. It is rather ironic that Google, have filed a complaint on the ground the new firm would have too much market power. It is interesting because it was Microsoft who was …