A key test in understanding economics is being able to interpret data. If you really want you can present data in a way which supports your argument. Therefore, always be careful about how you look at data. This is an example of how you could view employment statistics in the US. Total employment This graph …
Ireland has faced tremendous economic turmoil in recent years. Government debt has soared after the banking bailout and effect of a deep recession. The economy has faced a combination of Falling house prices bank losses and decline in bank lending Fiscal austerity (government spending cuts) to try and solve budget deficit. All these factors have …
Readers Question. If central banks collectively and continuously print money, does this mean there will never be a financial crisis and recession? If central banks collectively and continuously print money then we could end up with a different type of financial crisis. Instead of a recession (falling output), we could get a situation of high …
Readers Question: Can you Spend Your Way to Full Employment? Full employment implies. An economy without a significant negative output gap. Full employment requires positive economic growth, averaging close to the long run trend rate of economic growth. (in UK long run trend rate = 2.5%) Very low unemployment. Economists would say full employment is …
Money Supply is an important indicator of economic activity. A slowdown in money supply growth hints the EU is facing the prospect of very low inflation or even deflation. Since the start of 2010, the growth of M1 has fallen significantly for the Euro area. These figures show the whole Eurozone area, however, in the …
A two speed Europe refers to how, within the EU, economies are growing at different rates and are at different stages in the business cycle. For example, countries in the core of the Eurozone (Germany, Netherlands, France) have seen relatively good recovery since the recession. In these countries, unit labour costs have remained competitive, enabling …
Can Governments Increase the Rate of Economic Growth? Governments often seek to increase the rate of economic growth. Higher growth rates improve public finances, increase economic welfare and help reduce unemployment. However, it is debatable how much the government can actually increase the rate of economic growth. The greatest potential for increasing economic growth occurs …
The UK was the first country to industrialise, but also one of the first to deindustrialise. UK manufacturing as a a share of GDP has fallen from 30% in 1970 to 8% in 2024. The UK is not unique in smaller share of manufacturing, but the decline has been relatively bigger than other countries. Manufacturing …