Readers Question: Hi, just been watching tv about independence and the Scottish leader says our balance of payments would double if there was no oil money and they had their own money. What would happen to the English pound? would it go down? In 2012, the UK exported £39.6 bn worth of oil. In 2012, …
Readers Question: I’ve recently been studying monetarism and I have a question with regards to printing money. It is well known than printing money leads to inflation as demonstrated by the Fisher equation, but say if the new money created was all spent on imports i.e. all the newly printed money leaked from the domestic …
During the 1990s and first half of 2000, Ireland had one of the longest property booms on record. Between 1996 and 2006, the average price of second homes rose in Ireland rose by over 300%. The average price of new houses rose by 250%, according to the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DoEHLG). …
Another guide to inflationary pressures is the producer price index (PPI). Producer inflation measures the price of goods produced by manufacturing firms. This is sometimes referred to as ‘factor gate prices’ In the year to February 2013 the output price index for home sales of manufactured products rose 2.3%. In the same period the total …
The post 2008 recession has seen the longest decline in real GDP on record. 55 months after the peak output of 2008, the UK economy is still 4% below it’s peak. By contrast, in the same time frame during the early 1930s, the economy had recovered to be more than 2% higher than the 1930 …
In physics, escape velocity refers to the speed necessary to break free of gravitational field without further propulsion. For example, to leave the earth’s gravitational pull requires approximately 40,320 km/h, or 25,000 mph. This was first achieved in 1959 by Luna I. Very interesting, but what does escape velocity mean in relation economics? It refers to …
Frequently we hear the argument that there is no austerity in the UK. Government spending has even continued to rise during the recession. Some would even go so far as to say that the modest rise in government spending is proof that expansionary fiscal policy is a failure, and we should actually be cutting government …
A new series from the ONS shows an index of labour costs per hour. (this is an experimental series and looks as if it is not seasonally adjusted) Labour costs seem to be persistently highest in Q1. Labour costs per hour are primarily comprised of 1. Wage costs per hour but also 2. Non-wage costs. …