The UK housing market is a nightmare for first-time buyers. Average deposits £47,000. House prices eight times income, and for renters it’s even worse with rents remorselessly rising. But, there’s a new government and they have pledged to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years. Assuming they can achieve this goal, which is …
The economist recently warned that governments are living in a fiscal fantasyland, failing to confront dire and growing levels of debt. High inflation and rising interest rates have caused a surge in debt interest payments. By next year, the UK’s debt service payments will be similar to the entire education budget. It is a similar …
Greed Inflation is a term used to describe a higher inflation rate due to firms increasing their profit margins. In a period of high inflation, it becomes easier for firms to slip in rising profit margins too. Greed inflation is more likely in markets where firms have a degree of monopoly power and they can …
Since the end of 2019, the US economy has grown at the fastest pace in the G7. President Biden can claim the fastest job growth of any president. Yet despite strong growth in jobs and GDP, there are record low levels of dissatisfaction as Americans feel the pinch of inflation and falling real wages. Firstly …
There is no doubt that as the economy emerged from Covid lockdowns in 2021, the world experienced a surge in inflation, not seen since the 1970s. There are many supply and demand factors, which have caused this unexpectedly high inflation. The first factor is that Covid lockdowns, especially in China and Asia, disrupted global supply …
The Russian fossil fuel industry is facing a real crisis. Western sanctions and Russia’s own embargo on exports to the West mean that the industry is facing long-term decline. Already there have been reports of ‘capping’ of natural gas facilities. This means that natural gas is burnt at its source because the industry cannot sell …
Definition: Cost-push inflation occurs when we experience rising prices due to higher costs of production and higher costs of raw materials. Cost-push inflation is determined by supply-side factors, such as higher wages and higher oil prices. Cost-push inflation is different to demand-pull inflation which occurs when aggregate demand grows faster than aggregate supply. Cost-push inflation …
