Category: Essential Economics for Business: Ch 10
The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has signalled that the next year may be the toughest for 15 years with lower economic growth than previously forecast. So, is the UK economy going off the rails?
Questions
| 1. |
Explain the main reasons why the Governor of the Bank of England expects a worse than forecast level of economic growth in 2008. |
| 2. |
Discuss the extent to which a cut in interest rates will help prevent an economic slowdown. What adverse effects could follow from such a policy. |
| 3. |
Discuss one other policy that the government could adopt to try to reduce the extent of the forecast slowdown in economic growth. |
Rapidly rising food prices have led to instability in many countries and have fuelled inflation in less developed economies where food spending is a greater proportion of overall consumer spending. A number of factors have contributed to this rapid rise in prices, but one important contributory factor is the move towards growing crops that can be used as bio-fuels in the developing world and this shift in production is having a knock-on effect in world food markets.
Big food companies accused of risking climate catastrophe Guardian (8/11/07)
An agricultural crime against humanity Monbiot.com (6/11/07)
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite Guardian (3/11/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Identify the main factors that have led to rising world food prices. |
| 2. |
Assess the extent to which the move towards bio-fuels has contributed to the rise in world food prices. |
| 3. |
Explain how the impact of rising food prices differs in the developed and developing world. |
| 4. |
Discuss policies that governments could adopt to ameliorate the impact of rising food prices on the level of economic growth. |
Now that Tony Blair has announced that he is to step down as Prime Minister, the media has started to consider his legacy. The two articles focus on the economic legacy. While the BBC one is quite factual in its approach, the article by Larry Elliott from the Guardian is less complementary about his legacy.
The business of Tony Blair’s decade BBC News Online (10/05/07)
Blair’s legacy: a fantasy island trying to live beyond its means at every level Guardian (14/05/07)
Blair’s economic record (video) BBC News Online (10/05/07)
Questions |
| 1. |
Explain why Larry Elliott considers that we are living on a ‘fantasy island’. |
| 2. |
Explain the main economic changes that have been implemented during Tony Blair’s time in office. |
| 3. |
Discuss the extent to which the economic situation has improved under Tony Blair for (a) firms and (b) consumers. |
In the early days of monetary policy, money supply targeting was a core element of anti-inflation policy. This approach was slowly dropped during the 1990s, but the underlying growth of the money supply has remained an important issue for policy makers and recent growth in the money supply has led to concern from some commentators that higher inflationary pressures may yet emerge.
King sees money growth as danger sign Times Online (3/5/07)
Bank’s inflation controllers leave the NICE decade to enter the not-so-nice Guardian (3/5/07)
Should letter-writing be a thing of the past? Times Online (30/4/07)
Questions |
| 1. |
Explain the relationship between money supply growth and inflation. |
| 2. |
What were the main factors that led to money supply targeting being dropped as a core element of monetary policy? |
| 3. |
Assess the extent to which the MPC should pay more attention to the level of money supply growth. |
| 4. |
Should letter-writing be a thing of the past? |
The death of cash has long been forecast, but not yet happened, but is it the case that the next generation technology may finally sound the death knell? With the advent of prepaid cards (e.g. Oyster card in London), payment by mobiles and the continuing growth of ‘plastic’, it may be that cash is on an inexorable downward slide. The articles below look at a range of issues around the possible death of cash (and the introduction of the £20 note with Adam Smith on it).
Why I hate sticky electrons BBC News Online – Robert Peston Blog (19/2/07)
Cash used to be king, but now we pay for paying up Telegraph (9/2/07)
March launch for Smith £20 note BBC News Online (21/2/07)
A cash call The Economist (subscription) (15/2/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Explain the main functions that any form of money has to fulfil. |
| 2. |
Assess the extent to which smartcards (like the Oyster card) can fulfil these functions of money. |
| 3. |
Discuss the implications for the level of consumer spending of increased use of cash substitutes. |