Britain’s recovery – strong or weak?

There are different ways of looking at the UK recovery. Firstly, we can look at the damage done to the economy since the peak in 2008. The black lines suggests a possible pre-crisis trend rate of economic growth. A rough rule of thumb, suggests that had economic growth been maintained at the pre-crisis trend rate …

Read more

Growth of the global tablet market

Back in the summer of 2010, Apple launched the iPad. It was launched to great excitement and it seems the initial euphoria was well placed. From sales of zero at the start of 2010, the tablet market has expanded to over 100 million units a year as we come towards the end of 2013. Sales …

Read more

Facebook and productivity

How much is the internet helping to increase productivity? Do distractions like Facebook and Twitter mean the overall benefits of the internet are less than we might hope? How does the internet compare to other technology revolutions, such as stem power and electricity? I often work from a cafe. It’s a nice combination – good …

Read more

Could Google lose its monopoly?

According to Search marketing agency the Eword, Google hold 89.5% of the market share for internet search in the UK. Bing (owned by Microsoft) taks only a relatively small  6.11%. For such an important market, this is a very high market share, and shows Google has extensive monopoly power. This monopoly power has also been …

Read more

Resale price maintenance (RPM)

Resale price Maintenance RPM used to be a common practise for manufacturers to set a minimum price for retailers to sell their goods. In the UK, the use of RPM was quite common in the post-war period from clothes to books, records, clothes and electronic goods. It ensured a minimum price of resale and avoided …

Read more

Containerisation

container-ship-transport-economies-scale

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 …

Read more

Securitisation

Securitisation involves changing loans into tradeable bonds. Securitisation can increase the liquidity of banks and enable banks to engage in more lending than previously. Securitisation was a factor in the credit crunch because it enabled banks to lend more than usual. When there was a shortage of credit in the banking system, banks became over-exposed …

Read more

Item added to cart.
0 items - £0.00