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Economics Weekly Quiz | 12 April 2024
Here's our weekly economics news quiz covering stories from the UK and global economic events of the passed 7 days.
This is a fascinating article about how nail technicians are responding to the rising cost of living by collaborating to increase the price that they charge. Many of them appear to be earning under...
Thames Water - Nearing Collapse?
The fate of Thames Water hangs in the balance with its parent company, Kemble, having announced that they are going to default on the interest payment on a loan on Monday and will be unable to...
On 1 April 2024, the UK's National Minimum Wage (to apply to workers aged 21 and over) rises by 9.8% to £11.44 per hour. Torsten Bell at the Resolution Foundation has called the introduction of the...
Daniel Kahneman, the Israeli-American Nobel-Prize winning psychologist and economist, has passed away at the age of 90. His work has transformed our understanding of human behaviour and, from a...
The Resolution Foundation has released a study to mark the 25th anniversary of the National Minimum Wage - now called the National Living Wage - and concludes that it's one of the most successful...
Nissan has announced that, in the face of intense Chinese competition, they are going to reduce the cost of manufacturing electric cars by 30%. They think that greater concentration on EVs, battery...
Legoland to trial Surge Pricing
You wait a while for one example of surge pricing to come along, and like London buses, along comes a second too. This time, it's tourist attraction owner Merlin Entertainment is planning to adopt...
Economics Weekly Quiz | 22 March 2024
Here's our weekly economics news quiz covering stories from the UK and global economic events of the passed 7 days.
End of an Era - Japan Moves away from Negative Interest Rates
A historic moment: for the first time since 2007, Japan has raised monetary policy interest rates and they're no longer negative. Rates have gone from -0.1% to between 0.0 and 0.1% in response to a...
CMA to investigate UK house-builder merger
The Competition and Markets Authority are looking into the proposed £2.5bn Barratt takeover of Redrow, concerned about the impact that it's going to have on an already fairly concentrated sector.
Honda and Nissan have launched a joint venture to share electric car technology, such as components and software, and try to halt the seemingly unstoppable rise of Chinese competitors, backed by...
Is carbon offsetting a sham?
Is the notion of carbon offsetting a sham? This Guardian investigation seems to suggest so. One such project, the Kariba Project in Zimbabwe, appears to have generated 100m euros, largely for the...
Economics Weekly Quiz | 15 March 2024
Here's our weekly economics news quiz covering stories from the UK and global economic events of the passed 7 days.
Deflation hits the Chinese Economy
The news that Chinese consumer prices have fallen by 0.8%, the fastest rate in 15 years is worrying news, and implies that the economy has entered a deflationary period, with large falls in food...
West Yorkshire nationalises bus services
The renationalisation of bus services continues, with buses in West Yorkshire being brought under public control by the region's mayor. It seems as though, the experiment with privatisation is...
Morrisons makes £1 billion loss!
Morrisons plunged to a £1billion loss last year after a surge in debt interest payments linked to its private equity takeover. The business has been hit by a revenue squeeze and spiralling interest...
Manufacturing Coming Home - The Economics of Re-Shoring
This is a really good article from the BBC about reshoring and the factors that are currently driving it: higher wages in previously low-wage economies, a desire to get things quicker, the risks...
Stamp Prices Soaring - What future for letter deliveries?
A year ago, a first-class stamp cost 95p - from April 2024, it will be a staggering £1.35. Little wonder that letter volumes are falling fast - but this in turn increases the unit costs of...
Sky High Vet Bills - CMA Launches Formal Probe
Big competition policy news! The CMA is launching a formal investigation after an initial review of the UK vets market raised multiple concerns. There are sixteen million pet owners in the UK and...
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