EconomicsToo

Tasked with a thought experiment known a ' dissoi logoi ', a classical idea in rhetoric where one considers an issue from the perspective of an opponent's argument to better understand it, Year 13 economist, Zhou Chen has produced this piece (originally on his  blog ).  Following a discussion on how ' sovereignty ' was a major reason behind many 'Leave' votes and reviewing this article  on sovereignty being 'reclaimed' but then the UK ignoring Parliament, Zhou Chen has produced the following on his blog: Brexit negotiations kept secret from Parliament does reclaim sovereignty from Brussels First and foremost, I acknowledge this is a strange and unpopular view but seemed like an interesting mental exercise to pursue. The idea that, as announced by Secretary of State for Leaving the EU David Davis, “Until Article 50 is initiated and Britain officially begins the process of leaving the European Union, no news on Brexit negotiatio

The pound sterling has had its worst four day performance since June 2016's Brexit vote, having fallen to $1.23 and the expectations from the Bank of England are for it to fall further in the next few weeks. There has been a 19% drop since the referendum. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37617813 Brexit is clearly responsible for much of this fall. Whilst the falling pound against the dollar has actually been positive for the FTSE 100 as a large percentage of listed companies earn revenue in US dollars and are seeing an increase in their value, what is actually causing this to happen and what will the consequences be? How is Brexit actually causing the fall in value? The value of the pound is seen a judgement on the future growth potential of the UK economy in comparison with the future growth potential of other currencies and economies. So this depreciation does mean that the UK is seen as having less potential growth and that is why demand f

The impact of the introduction of the 5p charge on plastic bags in English supermarkets saw their usage fall from 7 billion to just over 500 million. This is obviously as massive drop and the main reason for the charge being introduced, so many would argue it has been a success. Image source:  http://greenmelocally.com/california-plastic-bag-ban/ Why reduce the usage of plastic bags? The main reason is down to the negative externalities of plastic bag usage. This page on the Ocean Crusaders website lists many of the key issues caused by discarded plastic bags to the oceans alone, including 1 million seabirds dying a year, ingestion by huge numbers of fish and that there is believed to be 46,000 pieces of discarded plastic in every square mile of ocean.   However, this Telegraph article  by Peter Spence argues that plastic bags make up only a tiny percentage, between 0.1 and 1%, of total rubbish, although about 2% of litter on beaches. Spence reports that the 5p charge will

We all know that essay structure is important. It's been said that a good essay is like a sandwich... you need an introduction, main body and a conclusion. This is rather vague advice, and so here are some pointers that should help you to construct an excellent economics essay. This post is designed to support questions that require all the assessment objectives tested. These types of questions tend to feature command terms like 'discuss', 'to what extent' or 'evaluate'... Image source The 5 step process This process is not perfect but does provide a framework to help you construct your essay. Feel free to use whatever elements you believe will add to your performance... 1 - Annotate the question Simply underline the command terms, highlight the parts which you need to respond to and the key terms etc. This will ensure you understand the question, helps you to focus and reduces the likelihood that you'll go off topic. 2 - Plan  I would

There is a great collection of independent economics blogs in a recent Bloomberg View article by Noah Smith . The list has some great writers that are well worth a regular visit and provides an insightful guide to each with categories to help you decide who's to visit first! The article: These Are the Econ Blogs You Need to Read

Here is a short post on a Year 12 student's thoughts regarding the recently unveiled plan to implement a sugar tax across Britain in 2018...Original post here . I mage source The March 2016 budget revealed Chancellor George Osborne's plan to levy a tax of up to 20% on soft drinks and other sugary products in the United Kingdom in an attempt to shadow the results of Mexico, where a sugar tax cut sales of sugary drinks by 12% during 2015. The tax aims to combat the rising obesity that has become endemic to Britain and burdens the national healthcare system whilst simultaneously acting as a fundraising tool to boost government revenue. Economically, the motivation for this tax is sound but could it actually be an effective tool to reduce the domestic consumption of sugar or is a lower obesity rate a distant dream? The rationale behind this tax is that it will simply increase prices which should suppress demand and therefore reduce consumption. Proponents ar

Image source:  Blisstree.com Of the many personal statements written by our year 13s, many I read are scattered with long, complex words, some of which I often do not understand myself! When asked what they mean, it isn't particularly rare to find out the student didn't know either. They often admit to using the synonym feature in their word processor to make them sound 'more intelligent'. It seems, however, that they may be wasting time searching for more imaginative words with the intention of sounding more knowledgable. They may have been far better to keep the simple word after all! Daniel Oppenheimer of UCLA found (in this  study ) that using shorter words actually makes you seem more intelligent and this article explaining Oppenheimer's work by Fast Company gives a great review of the study and the findings. He and his team conducted studies that found that the use of longer words in texts had the exact opposite effect of making you seem smarter to the

I love all the commencement speeches out there. Many often hold nuggets of gold that one can try to implement into their own life and help us to improve... not having attended one of these universities (yet) to hear them live, we can still mine their goodness and enjoy them from the comfort of our own laptop or *insert tech device of choice here*. ...There really are some crackers. Obviously Steve Jobs at Stanford is well up there amongst the best, but this possibly lesser known speech by Neil Gaiman is well worth sharing here. Enjoy

This Guardian story outlines the plans of new NHS Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, to place a tax on sugar in hospitals. It is an interesting approach to combating the obesity epidemic sweeping the western world and is expected to improve the health of 1.3 million NHS workers by raising approximately £30m a year, and he is urging the government to force food firms into action. Image source:  http://www.ceresproject.org/Sugar.html  Hospitals in England, by 2020, plan to charge increased prices for sugary beverages and snacks that are sold in their cafes and vending machines. A tax of 20% has been suggested by medical groups and health charities but the figure is yet to be decided. This is likely to reduce the levels of consumption of sugar and is a good place to start if the UK is going to do something about the levels of obesity and diabetes, which are both  closely tied to sugar intake. I guess hospitals and government health facilities should lead by example and set the p