EconomicsToo

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 ...

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...