In the past few years, Central Banks have been buying bonds to Increase money supply Reduce bond yields The aim of quantitative easing is to avoid deflationary pressure and increase economic growth. Ending quantitative easing will mean The Central Bank stop buying any more bonds. The process will then be reversed and, in time, the …
When interest rates were cut to 0.5% in March 2009, few would have expected them to remain at 0.5 until the present time. Yet, we have seen an unprecedented period of zero interest rates. There is much speculation about: When interest rates will rise? How much will interest rates to increase to? What will be …
Containerisation is a system of standardised transport, that uses a common size of steel container to transport goods. These containers can easily be transferred between different modes of transport – container ships to lorries and trains. This makes the transport and trade of goods cheaper and more efficient. The container was invented in 1956 by …
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 …