The train line pictured above is one that I often take in my home city of Glasgow. It takes 19 minutes to travel the 6 miles or so from Jordanhill in the west end of Glasgow to Bridgeton in the east end. In a remarkably illuminating piece of analysis, a Scottish health researcher used the … Continue reading
It is time to introduce a National Maximum Wage A National Maximum Wage is legal limit on how individual may earn. At first sound, it might sound ridiculous and even stupid. However, a National Maximum Wage would help to control the costs of labour and to certain extent control the level of inflation. Furthermore, it … Continue reading
The war against obese people starts here. Nearly one in five British secondary school pupils and a quarter of adults are obese, costing the NHS about £9billion a year. Almost 12,000 people last year received Disability Living Allowance because they are to obese to work, compared to 5500 in 2010. Britain’s obesity crisis is costing … Continue reading
In today’s world one observes a lot of self-interest, yet we are still far away from the complete absence of altruism, that is the concern for the welfare of others. Reaching such a state would not only be harmful for society and its environment but for each individual, too. Selfishness provides for a lot of behaviours crucial to the … Continue reading
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has finally started to put right the issues caused by the double-dip recession of 2007/11. They controlled the interest rates to help move inflation towards their target of 2.0% whilst also looking to see Real GDP growth to help escape the turmoil of the recession. Changes to the interest rate … Continue reading
Everybody knows that trade unions, especially large ones, have bargaining power over firms and thus can put them under pressure, for example by making workers go on a strike. However, do we want firms being under such pressure? Actions of trade unions can create uncertainty within companies. Uncertainty reduces investment, what leads to deterioration of … Continue reading
Perfect property rights and legal systems combined with free foreign exchange policy; these advantages make London became a global financial centre. However, there is one more important reason we cannot neglect: EuroDollar. In the 1960s, the American Government decreed Interest Equalization Tax to improve the balance of payments, the Federal Reserve also set up Q … Continue reading
Even the most audacious speculators couldn’t believe it, when Mario Draghi announced that the European Central Bank (ECB) would lower the key interest rate from 0.5% to 0.25%. Although all parties involved were very aware of the fact that the Euro still was and is in dodgy economic realms and recovery growth hadn’t kicked in … Continue reading
Karl Marx is the father of communism. Most people would agree to this statement. However there might be more to the story than first meets the eye: Marx didn’t write “Das Kapital” all on his own, neither applies to “The Communist Manifesto”. Ever at his side was Friedrich Engels, his lifelong friend and brother in … Continue reading
“You don’t take the fight out of me!” Chairman Guido Westerwelle was radiating pride and confidence on the evening of the 27th September 2009. He had just led his Free Democrats (FDP) to a historic high of 14,7% in the Bundestag elections and all seemed to go his way. Now, only 4 years later, not … Continue reading
merchinomics 