One feature of the labour market in the past 10 years has been the rise of zero-hour contracts. This is a contract where the employer is not obliged to employ a worker for any number of fixed hours. It means that the contract is highly flexible in terms of hours worked. This is obviously advantageous …
In a previous post, we saw how bank lending in the UK fell during the credit crunch, contributing to the length and depth of the recession. Because of this the Bank of England and Government have sought to try and increase bank lending – in order to help stimulate economic growth. Fall in bank lending. …
Internal Devaluation – where a country seeks to regain competitiveness through lowering wage costs and increasing productivity and not reducing the value of the exchange rate. A devaluation of the currency is a decision to allow a currency, in a fixed or semi-fixed exchange rate, to decrease in value. Devaluing the currency means that the …
Economists generally agree that a high inflation rate has various economic costs and therefore, we should use economic policy to keep inflation low. Since the mid 1980s, governments have increasingly set strict inflation targets, e.g. ECB inflation of less than 2%. The Bank of England targeting inflation of 2% +/-1. However, some economists argue that …
Readers Question: I am also interested in Marxist economics and they seem to say the 2007-2008 crisis was a result of over-financialisation of the economy, and that investors/owners could not squeeze surplus out of other sectors in the economy as they once could. Financialisation of an economy refers to the situation where the finance sector …
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 …
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 …