House prices and interest rates

real-house-prices-75-16

Interest rates have a strong influence on house prices, principally because changes in the interest rate affect the cost of mortgage payments. How do interest rates affect house prices? If interest rates rise it will have a significant effect on increasing the cost of mortgages. Higher mortgage payments will deter prospective home-buyers – it becomes …

Read more

Supply Side Policies for Reducing Unemployment

To what extent can supply side policies reduce unemployment? To try and reduce unemployment, the government can provide interventionist supply-side policies, such as better training and education or it can try free-market policies, such as increasing labour market flexibility. However, there is a limit because supply-side policies are ineffective in dealing with cyclical (demand-deficient unemployment) …

Read more

Washington consensus – definition and criticism

The Washington Consensus refers to a set of broadly free market economic ideas, supported by prominent economists and international organisations, such as the IMF, the World Bank, the EU and the US. Essentially, the Washington consensus advocates, free trade, floating exchange rates, free markets and macroeconomic stability. The ten principles originally stated by John Williamson …

Read more

Real Wage Unemployment

Definition: Real wage unemployment occurs when wages are set above the equilibrium level causing the supply of labour to be greater than demand. Classical unemployment of Q1-Q2 caused by a wage NMW above the equilibrium. Classical economists argue the solution is to cut wages to reduce unemployment. For example, a fall in demand for labour …

Read more

When will interest rates rise?

inflation-interest-rates

Readers Question: Will interest rates rise? Some say yes, my investment analyst/advisor says no (“because the UK is largely living on credit and the government and bank of England do not want a repeat of 2008”) Interest rates will rise when the Bank of England feel the economy has returned to a normal trend of …

Read more

Low economic growth and unemployment

Readers Question: Why is it that when there is low economic growth, unemployment rises? A low rate of economic growth can cause higher unemployment. Though it is not always the case. During 2010-13 the UK experienced a slow rate of economic growth, but unexpectedly unemployment fell. If there is negative economic growth (recession) we would …

Read more

US economy under Obama 2009-2017

us-economic-growth

Barack Obama served as President from Jan 2009 – Jan 2017. When Obama came to office in Jan 2009, the US economy was in a deep recession, with falling real GDP, high unemployment and rising levels of government borrowing. As President, Obama oversaw a moderate fiscal expansion which helped to promote economic recovery and falling …

Read more

List of Recessions in UK and US

rise-unemployment-recessions-731086

A list of the major recessions in UK and US. List of Recessions in UK Comparing different recessions 1919-21 Recession GDP fell 25% during the three years following the end of the First World War. Unemployment rose to 20% UK experienced deflation of 10% in 1921, and 14% in 1922 Causes of fall in GDP …

Read more

Item added to cart.
0 items - £0.00