I asked my Economics students to conduct a questionnaire, asking people in the street various questions about Economics. One Question was: What do You consider to be the Most Serious economic problem Facing the UK at the moment. These are the most popular responses to far. House Prices (50% of responses) Government Debt Ignorance because …
Graph showing Ratio of House prices to Incomes This graph shows an interesting increase in the ratio of house prices to income. It is well know that UK house prices have increased significantly since 1993. In some areas the house price increase has been at least 300%, since the early 1990s. However, since 1998, house …
But, do they deserve it? Last year, Shell made profits of $27.6bn (£14bn). This equates to profits of about £1.5 million per hour – which by any stretch of the imagination is not a bad hourly earning. The profits have been criticised by trades unions, environmentalists and motoring organisations. Motoring organisations claim that petrol is …
Already since the start of the year the FTSE-100 has fallen 7%. Yesterday, the stock market fell 3% of 190 points on fears related to the growing credit crunch. In particular, American bank Citibank wrote off $18billion from its mortgage defaults. It hopes this will draw a line under the losses in the derivatives market. …
Back in March I wrote this essay – Is the US heading towards recession? According to some doom mongers the US is already in recession. They point to the ‘collapsing’ housing market and the rise in ‘repossessions’ The irony is that US economic growth has remained unexpectedly high at 4.9% in 3rd quarter of 2007. …
Readers Question: What will happen if OPEC continued to increase oil prices? Firstly, the rise in the price of oil is not just due to the activities of OPEC. It is partly due to the rising demand from countries such as China. If OPEC continue to contribute to higher oil prices in 2008 it would …
Indian Economy 2009 Behind China, India is the second fastest growing economy. According to a survey by Goldman Sachs, India will become the 3rd largest economy by 2035. This is measured in $US. If we use PPP (purchasing power parity) which takes into account local purchasing power, India already has the 3rd largest economy. However, …
See also: Chinese Economy 2008 For many years the Chinese Yuan was tied to the dollar, however in July 2005 the yuan was finally allowed to break away from the dollar. However, unlike most other currencies, the Chinese government still try to influence the level of the Yuan. They have tried to keep the …