In the past few years, we have had a bewildering array of different crisis – credit crunch, financial crisis, fiscal crisis, banking crisis, economic crisis, depression economics, oil price shock, currency crisis, housing crashes and more. Arguably, we should be calling continued mass unemployment a crisis. In many ways, it is more serious than a …
A casual observer may have been led into thinking that the recent credit crunch and recession were caused by profligate governments, with Governments spending and borrowing too much. Much attention has been focused on the need for fiscal austerity and less on ways to maintain recovery and help reduce unemployment. Governments are not entirely blameless, …
Readers Question: My question is if some many people are aware of this debt and credit problem, why are governments continuing this policy? Debt is nothing more than future taxes which has a crowding out effect. It is a statement that says, government is a more efficient player in the market than individuals. (from Rapid …
Readers Question: I keep reading about our country’s trade deficit which was £3bn in April. How does that work, if a country is spending more than it’s earning? Are we getting ourselves into more debt? I read that Germany has a trade surplus, which is not surprising but why can’t we do the same? There …
One feature of the past few years is the rapid rise in government borrowing. – not just a rise in real debt but a rise in debt to GDP. This means debt burdens are a bigger % of National Output. It’s not the first time this has happened. A rise in debt to GDP typically …
The UK credit rating is a measure of the UK government’s credit worthiness on the level of government borrowing. AAA rating implies that the government is liable to honour its debts and repay bonds and gilts in full. A- would indicate a small chance of default. BBB rating implies the investment is speculative with a …
Greece is facing a very difficult situation with it’s bond market reduced to ‘junk bond status’ Interest rate on two year Greek bonds have an interest rate of 18%. See: European Fiscal Crisis Countries have experienced higher levels of government debt as a % of GDP. However, in the case of Greece, there appears a …
Like quite a few teachers I am currently stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic – waiting for a chance to fly back to Britain. I’m not sure when I will return to England, but, after an Easter break the blog will resume from today. Apparantely, there is one volcano, the memorably named, Eyjafjallajoekull …