A look at the economic and social impact of Mrs Thatcher’s economic policies. Summary of Thatcher’s Economic policies Belief in the desirability of free markets over government intervention. E.g. pursuing policies of privatisation and deregulation. The pursuit of supply-side policies to increase efficiency and productivity. Reducing the power of trades unions and increased labour …
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 Euro is the single European countries adopted by 18/28 EU countries. (though not the UK). It is the second-largest reserve currency in the world after the US Dollar. Euro notes and coins came into circulation on January 1st, 2002. It was hoped that the Euro would confer many benefits on member countries. 1. Lower …
One of the first lessons in economics is the idea of opportunity cost. If you pursue one choice, it means you can’t do another option. The government faces countless decisions based on this. For example, the government could spend more on health care, but the opportunity cost would be lower spending on education. We could …
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 …
New statistics from the ONS, show that there are large disparities in wealth within the UK. In 2010/12, aggregate total wealth of all private households in Great Britain was £9.5 trillion, (increasing from £9.0 trillion in 2008-10. Some highlights from the report The wealthiest 10% of households owned 44% of total aggregate household wealth. The …
The nominal value is the actual value stated on note, coin or government bond. Nominal value can also be referred to as the face value. Nominal values imply there has been no correction for the effect of inflation or market prices. Nominal value vs market value A government sells bonds with a nominal value of …
Readers Question: Why does the government borrow? Essentially, the government borrows so that it can enable higher spending without having to increase taxes. The annual amount the government borrows is known as the budget deficit. The total amount the government has borrowed is known as the national debt or public sector debt. There are many …