Economic growth is an increase in national output/income (higher real GDP). There are two main aspects of economic growth: Aggregate demand (AD) (consumer spending, investment levels, government spending, exports-imports) Aggregate supply (AS) (Productive capacity, the efficiency of economy, labour productivity) To increase economic growth We need to see a rise in demand and/or an increase …
There was a global recession in 1974, 1980-81, 1991-92 and 2007. Readers Question: In this period of recession, is gold a safe investment? Gold is traditionally seen as a safe investment, especially during a time of financial uncertainty, high inflation, depreciating exchange rates and economic recession. The main reason is that gold has an intrinsic …
A recession is a period of negative economic growth – a fall in output accompanied by rising unemployment. Recessions tend to occur in cycles of 8-10 years, though there is no hard and fast rule. Attempting to predict a recession by the number of years is not guaranteed to work. Recessions in UK Source: ONS …
The demand curve shows the amount of goods consumers are willing to buy at each market price. A linear demand curve can be plotted using the following equation. Qd = a – b(P) Q = quantity demand a = all factors affecting QD other than price (e.g. income, fashion) b = slope of the demand …
The marginal efficiency of capital displays the expected rate of return on investment, at a particular given time. The marginal efficiency of capital is compared to the rate of interest. Keynes described the marginal efficiency of capital as: “The marginal efficiency of capital is equal to that rate of discount which would make the present …
Readers Question: The Labour party, among others, protests about the effects of government austerity policies on ordinary people but does government spending, even so-called ‘investment in infrastructure’, not automatically increase national debt which means punishing future generations? Firstly, if a government increases spending without any corresponding increase in taxes, then this change in the government’s …
A look at the benefits and costs of capital flows.
Readers Question: The Oil Petroleum and Exporting Countries (OPEC) comprise the main oil procedures in the world. With the aid of diagrams show how OPEC is able to fix the price of oil on the world markets and comment on its recent activity in this area. Suggest what would happen if OPEC kept increasing prices …