I’m off to New York on Wednesday, I’m tempted to stay until May 8th, so I can miss the UK General election campaigning, which so far has been quite depressing for the poor quality of economic debate. This is just an outline of some issues for consideration. I may expand upon these in the coming …
How do falling share prices affect the economy? Lower share prices mean investors will see a fall in wealth. However, this is unlikely to influence consumption significantly. Most people who buy shares are relatively affluent; if their stocks decrease in value it doesn’t mean their consumption will suffer. Usually, people who buy shares see it …
Recently, the Euro has fallen from 1.5 Dollars to 1 Euro in 2011 to near parity in March 2015. The fall in the value of the Euro has been very steep in the last six months. This is a very significant depreciation in the Euro, and primarily reflects the greater economic weakness in the Eurozone. …
A look at the nature of the UK economic recovery. Is the recovery sustainable? Who has benefited the most from recovery? Which groups of people have not benefited from the recovery? In the past two years, the UK economy has posted relatively impressive growth figures. The UK posted annual growth of 2.6% between Q3 2014 …
Readers Question: Is there an inbuilt deflationary bias in the Eurozone? Note: I originally wrote this post in 2010. Unfortunately, every year there is a reason to update the post and suggest the deflationary bias in the Eurozone keeps getting stronger. Deflationary bias means that there is a tendency for economic policy to promote lower …
Greece is a very good example of the damage of austerity can do to both economies and the social fabric of a country. Firstly Greek austerity is almost unprecedented in its scope and intensity. Greece government spending and revenue Greek government spending was cut from €120 bn in 2008 to €90 bn in 2014. To …
Competitive devaluation occurs when countries seek to reduce the value of their exchange rate to make their exports cheaper and gain a competitive advantage in world trade over other countries. This may encourage other countries to respond by also devaluing their currency to maintain their own competitive advantage. If countries are making great efforts to …
Why didn’t the UK Join the Euro? Joining the Euro would give the UK various advantages: predictability of exchange rates with Europe Easier for consumers to compare prices (price transparency) Lower transaction costs Encourages investment because of greater stability in trade. However, despite these potential benefits the UK decided not to join and shows no …