No 274: A Very Sad Day For The Uk

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NO 273: UK Teacher Shortage

 ONLY half the required number of trainee secondary school teachers have been recruited for UK teacher training courses starting this academic year.

Read this article to find out why, and what may help in the future: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/12/only-half-of-required-number-of-trainee-secondary-teachers-in-england-recruited

USE YOUR ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE - what would be the economic impact on the UK economy of not having enough secondary school teachers?

No 272: Call for Tougher Ads About Alcohol

 WE all know that in the past the governments of many countries have produced hard hitting and even shocking advertisements on topics like cigarette smoking and wearing seatbelts.

Now, many health care campaigners are arguing for the same kind of ads to make people aware of the health problems caused by drinking alcohol and eating unhealthily. Read about what they are calling for here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/16/dire-need-for-labels-on-alcohol-and-ads-about-unhealthy-eating-to-cut-avoidable-cancers

What do you think - do you think such advertising would be successful?

No 271: The US Economy Has Recovered Well But People Don't Believe It

 During Covid, unemployment in the USA reached nearly 15%. Now it is less than 4%. Wages have been rising too. Inflation was high, but is now falling much faster than in the UK or EU.

Yet, many American people do not think their own economic situation has got better despite the statistics. This article tries to find out why: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/16/us-economy-inflation-wages-salaries-recession

No 270: Populist Leaders Are Bad At Economics

 A good topic here for possible PPE students to look at.

This short article https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/17/populist-leaders-bad-for-economy-but-hard-habit-to-break features some academic research about the effect of Populist leaders:

once they get into office they tend to stay for twice as long as non-populists. They are annoyingly good at politics, but very bad at economics.... a populist leader hits a country’s GDP per capita and living standards by about 10% over 15 years

No 269: What younger people want?

 INTERESTING article here: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/17/rishi-sunak-tories-image-under-40s-younger-people-britain-net-zero which lists what the economic demands of "younger"people in the UK might be ("younger" = younger than people like me, older than you!).

It seems they have 5 areas of concern - 

(1) Economic stability.

(2) Housing and rent.

(3) Tuition fees and training.

(4) Childcare.

(5) Green policies.

Maybe the issues on this list are not so surprising, but it will be interesting to see what the different political parties say about them in the run up to next year's General Election.

No 268: A Global Carbon Tax?

FOR years, many environmenal economists (including me!) have argued that the best policy to reduce fossil fuel emissions is a carbon tax.

This kind of tax would be charged both to businesses and consumers according to how much CO2 was emitted by the different activities they engage in. Although everyone hates taxes, they are a very useful way to stop people doing something. And if they do not stop doing it, it nonetheless provides revenue to be used to clean up any problems they are causing.

Cigarette smoking, plastic bag use, consumption of fizzy drinks, are all areas in which this seems to have worked.

This week, leaders at the African Climate Summit have called for a global tax on carbon emissions. Why this is different from individual countries doing it themselves is that it may help with "climate change inequality" - whereby the poorest countries in the world face the biggest costs from climate change, have the least money to deal with it, yet have done the least in terms of emissions to have actually caused it.

Under the proposal, the proceeds of a global carbon tax would go to these countries. Do you think it is an idea that can work? Read about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66733557

No 267: Problems in the Chinese Economy

FOR the first time in many decades, China's macroeconomic performance is struggling.

It has had a very hard time time recovering post-Covid due to factors like slow domestic consumption, high youth unemployment and a decline in exports. This lack of growth is leading to the risk of deflation - where prices across the economy fall.

While having prices falling across the economy may seem like a good outcome, it often then leads to consumers postponing purchases in the hope of buying at even lower prices. Firms cannot sell enough, so cut their prices. If consumers still delay purchases, the result can be a "deflationary spiral" where growth falls, firms go out of business, and jobs are lost.

Read about how this is affecting China: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/09/chinese-economy-out-of-deflation-but-faces-threat-of-relapse

No 266: Why There Will Be No New Wind Farms in the UK

ALL countries see wind power as a crucial way to reduce CO2 emissions and the UK has been one of the pioneers in this kind of energy.

However, at this year's UK government auction, no firms at all chose to bid for contracts to provide new wind farms.

Why this was is a very interesting Economics lesson about the right and wrong ways to set up markets and prices: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/08/what-went-wrong-at-uk-governments-offshore-wind-auction

No 265: How Smartphones Can Be Sustainable

 DID you know that the lifespan of the average smart phone is only just over two years? Did you also know that the pay and working conditions for those who extract the raw materials for smartphones, and who assemble them, are often extremely poor?

Some mobile phone companies are trying to produce phones that we can use for longer (e.g. by giving more years of updates), therefore reducing e-waste and making the emmissions from producing a mobile phone more worthwhile. Companies are also trying to source Fair Trade materials and only get their phones assembled in factories that pay a living wage.

A very interesting article about this: https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/07/17/environmentally-friendly-smartphones-a-closer-look-at-sustainable-phones-fairphone-4/

No 264: Success in the Irish Economy

 THIS article below is about a worry that economists in Ireland have, which we can dream about in the UK!

They are worried about the economy "overheating" - that is, of GDP growing so quickly that it makes inflation also increase rapidly.

Meanwhile, in the UK, we do have high inflation, but certainly not due to fast GDP growth....

Something else Ireland has that we have not had for a long time (since about 2003) is a budget surplus - that is, when government revenue is higher than government expenditure.

Good economic times for them!

Read about it more here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3gw0888ew5o