May 17 2012
Watching RS today
May 9 2012
Governments in the rich world have mostly run deficits over the past three decades
IT IS appealing to imagine that there is a lovely painless alternative to austerity in Europe, if only the stubborn politicians would choose to follow it. François Hollande encouraged this notion during his presidential campaign, stating that he was for growth and against austerity as if that were the choice on offer. Greece’s voters, by now well into a recession that could last for years, would dearly like an alternative. Unfortunately this idea rests on a rather heroic assumption: that countries can spend big now, running up large budget deficits to make up for lacklustre private-sector demand, then rein in that spending a few years down the line when the worst of the crisis has passed. The first of these two charts uses a dataset that goes back to 1978 but only covers a relatively small number of OECD countries. The second chart is more comprehensive but considers a shorter timespan. Both suggest that, in good times as in bad, governments will find reasons to spend more than they receive in revenue.
via Daily chart: Give us austerity, but not yet | The Economist.
Apr 9 2012
The government is proposing a minimum price of 40p per unit of alcohol in England and Wales in an effort to “turn the tide” against binge drinking.
via BBC News – Minimum alcohol price planned for England and Wales.
Take a look at these links and make up your own mind.
http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/the-minimum-alcohol-price-debate
http://www.cps.org.uk/get-involved/debate/q/ref-6/
Mar 30 2012
THE leaders of five of the world’s fast-rising powers yesterday agreed to move toward creating a new development bank that would improve access to capital for poor nations. Accusing current international institutions of failing to lift up poor countries, the BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – asked their finance ministers to investigate setting up a development bank like the World Bank or Asian Development Bank. They also agreed to boost business and trade in their own local currencies. The five countries represent 45 percent of the world’s population, a quarter of its land mass and a quarter of its economy at US$13.5 trillion.
To bolster business, they agreed to do deals in their local currencies – a move that would help insulate them from US dollar fluctuations while helping lift trade between them from 2011′s US$230 billion to US$500 billion by 2015. Easing visa restrictions is also a priority, Singh said, as is helping one another develop renewable energies and secure supplies of food, water and energy. The leaders hit out at rich nations for distorting trade and jeopardizing food security through agricultural subsidies, with a statement from the five’s trade ministers saying they “emphasized the need to resist protectionist tendencies.”
via BRICS leaders consider a bank for poor nations — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报
Mar 23 2012
When you answer the questions from the AD/AS Analysis task, remember the following basic rules. There will be a change in
Let’s see what you all think and how well you can analyse the situation you have been given. Please explain what will happen to AS, AD or both, and why. They are as follows.
Mar 19 2012
A local four-star hotel is suing China Unicom, accusing the telecommunications giant of violating the Chinese Antimonopoly Law by forcing the hotel to pay for a bundled broadband service at a price much higher than the market price, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said yesterday.
via Hotel sues China Unicom over pricing — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 — English Window to China New.
What is interesting to me about this is that the hotel is actually suing the company. Why is this? Have they tried other methods already? Have you seen this sort of thing happening in other countries? How would it work in the UK or elsewhere? What could you write about from this article?
Mar 17 2012
CHINA’S yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchange increased by 25.12 billion yuan (US$3.97 billion) month on month in February, the central bank said yesterday. This meant the central bank bought 25.12 billion yuan worth of foreign exchange from commercial banks last month to offset the same amount of foreign exchange inflow, as China’s currency is inconvertible under the capital account.
Mar 12 2012
A trade deficit in the first two months this year and its impact on the exchange rate of Renminbi is “a good thing” for China, the governor of China’s central bank said today. The supply and demand relations in the market are playing an increasing role in deciding the exchange rate of the Chinese currency, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual parliamentary session. China swung to a trade deficit of US$31.48 billion in February, the largest in a decade, as import growth far outpaced exports.
This is a real shocker for two reasons, at least.
Mar 2 2012
Fishing and rights: How to stop fishermen fishing | The Economist.
Jan 11 2012
Here are just a few links from Tutor2u
Jan 10 2012
Both lending and money supply growth beat analysts’ expectations. China’s total cash in circulation and all deposits rose by 13.6% in December compared to the same month last year. This is a higher rate of increase than November’s money supply figure, which was up 12.7% on the year before. Analysts had been expecting money supply to grow to 12.9%. New loans were expected to hit 580bn yuan in December.
via BBC News – New loans beat forecast, as authorities ease credit.
It’s not often you see a clear illustration of the money supply increasing. The difference between this and quantitative easing is that in the case of the latter, new money is being printed. In this case banks are allowed to lend more of their deposits.
Jan 10 2012
What can you find out about any pay differences that may exist?
1) Skilled and unskilled (maybe movie stars, accountants, secretaries, cleaners in your country)
2) Male and female (maybe search gender pay differences… in your country)
3) Private and public sectors (maybe search teachers or nurses in your country)
4) International differences (compare countries)
Dec 26 2011
China and Japan plan direct currency exchange agreement
China has been pushing for the yuan to become an alternate reserve currency along with the US dollar
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Yuan ‘will get reserve status’
China and HK expand currency deal
US committee warns of yuan threat
China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade.
The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other.
Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.
via BBC News – China and Japan plan direct currency exchange agreement.
Dec 25 2011
China province raises minimum wage by 23%Authorities say they expect Chinas average minimum wage to grow at least 13% annuallyContinue reading the main storyRelated StoriesChina losing manufacturing edgeIs the era of cheap Chinese labour almost over?Sichuan province in southwest China has increased the minimum wage sharply to try and attract workers amid a rapidly rising cost of living. Sichuan raised the minimum monthly wage by 23.4% starting on 1 January, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday.That is one of the biggest increases, with most other provinces raising wages in line with government advice of 13%.
Dec 12 2011
China’s rate of inflation has fallen in November to its slowest pace in 14-months. Consumer prices rose at 4.2% compared with the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. Inflation was at 5.5% in October, after hitting a three-year high in July of 6.5%. Analysts said this creates more room for authorities to ease monetary policy and encourage economic growth.
“The numbers confirmed that inflation is easing quickly in China,” said Hua Zhongwei from Huachuang Securities in Beijing, ”As such, China’s policies have to shift to the pro-growth side in a stronger and quicker way.”
The slowing pace of inflation allows Chinese authorities to turn their policies more towards growth, as Europe’s crisis starts to affect Asia. China has seen demand for its products shrink, as consumers in Europe and the US cut back on spending as growth slows in those regions. Manufacturing activity contracted in November for the first time in 33 months, data showed. These indicators have increased concern that China could be headed for a slowdown as well.
In what was seen as a shift in policy towards growth, China cut the amount of money banks must keep in reserve last week. It was an attempt to free up credit and encourage lending. Policy makers are meeting this month to map out the direction for economic policies in 2012. ”We will see some changes in the nuance of the announcement after next week’s central economic work conference,” said Zhou Hao from ANZ in Shanghai. ”But we will see clearer signs of relaxation in what they do.” China’s economy expanded 9.1% in the third quarter, the slowest pace in two years.
via BBC News – China’s inflation rate falls to 4.2% in November.
Discussion questions:
Dec 10 2011
We will have a visit from a resident expert in school next term when we can really discuss this. We also have two Indian students. We need their views.
Dec 7 2011
Want to save a document as a PDF but you don’t own Adobe Acrobat? No problem. You can print documents, webpages, or nearly anything to create a PDF file directly from Mac OS X without any additional software. Here’s how to do it:
* Open the document you want to print to a PDF
* Click the File menu and select “Print”, or just hit Command+P
* Look for the “PDF” button in the lower left corner, click on it and select “Save as PDF”
* Click “Save” in the save dialogue box in whatever location you want
That’s all there is to it, you will now have a PDF file created instantly by the print function. You can then view it later, use your favorite PDF editor for Mac (or Windows/Linux) to edit the PDF, distribute it online with something like e-Junkie, or whatever.
Dec 7 2011
608 held as police join forces on trafficking — Shanghai Daily
I want to thank one student in particular, Hui Hua Lim, for bringing this whole topic to my attention in the past year. Many of us at Yew Chung International School in Shanghai have talked about just such stories.
We have succeeded in raising money for charity from auction events in school. The more important point is that awareness has been raised across the school including with teachers.
Let’s hope we can continue to see this scourge on human freedom diminish. The Chinese government should be congratulated for their successes, such as these:
Official figures show that police across the country have broken up 7,025 human trafficking groups since a special campaign started in April 2009, with 18,518 children and 34,813 women rescued.
Dec 6 2011
There are many examples of natural monopoly and, sometimes, excessive market power.
Google news: China Unicom monopoly probe
BBC link: Exxon and Mobil merger
Please answer these two questions as comments:
Dec 6 2011
Assumptions of the Model:
1) Many sellers
2) No barriers to entry
3) SR profit maximiser
4) Market has perfect information
5) Products are NON-HOMOGENEOUS
Characteristics of the market
1) Large number of suppliers = small incentive to collude
2) Products are differentiated through marketing and advertising
3) The firm has a degree of market power
See what examples you can find on the streets you know.
