Readers Question: Why are Diamonds very expensive and water very cheap, when diamonds are useless, but water is essential for life? The first question is – how many diamonds do you buy during your lifetime? How often do you consume water? The average person will buy maybe 2 or 3 – possibly six diamonds in …
Readers question: Nor do I understand how they can weaken their currency through government intervention, if they are not intervening. Is it only US that is complaining about the value of the Yuan? The main thing is that Chinese Central Banks, with the support of the Chinese government are purchasing foreign assets, such as US …
For many goods we expect the price to be determined by market forces – by supply and demand. For example, computers, cars, holidays, food e.t.c. However, there is another class of good where society dislikes the idea of prices being set by market forces. The best example is football tickets or Concert tickets. . In …
It’s the time of the year when many students are getting to start economics for the first time. It can be a little confusing with so many new concepts and words. But, if we had just one lesson, what could we teach about economics? Society wishes to optimise the distribution of resources. Economics considers how …
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 …
Readers Question: How can the U.S. economy be growing, even at 2%+, when the unemployment rate is so high. The unemployed don’t pay taxes, and obviously can’t spend their earnings. The US economy may be growing by 2%, but, it is still along way below potential output. It is merely recovering from a deep recession. …
Discuss Economic Policies to Improve the Health of the Nation Can we use economics to improve the nation’s health? For many years rising living standards led to improved health and life expectancy. Greater national income enabled more to be spent on health care. Combined with improved medical technology, life expectancy rose. However, in many western …
Readers Question: What are the advantages of Nuclear Power? Nuclear power currently provides 15% of the world’s electricity supply. Once built nuclear power is relatively cheap and safe to produce. However, concerns over radioactivity and safety have led to calls for nuclear power to be phased away. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages Environmental Benefits …