'What Happened?' by Hugh Pym and Nick Kochan

Hi there,

   Another story from my life – hope you guys don’t mind. So, it was 23^rd May, the very first morning after graduation ball. Was out for brunch with two of my friends. After a relatively fine meal in Tai Won Mein we were on the way back, and then … I thought I might have a visit in Waterstone’s, as had already finished ’The Return of Depression Economics …’ (don’t remember? click). Browsed through the bookshop shelves for a while (obviously in Economics section) and, um, found this:



   A 115-page long book written by Hugh Pym, a BBC Economics Editor, and Nick Kochan, a Financial Times journalist. Those two gentlemen combined a Q&A list regarding the issues of the current economic climate as well as a short, yet detailed, description of the events that led to the present situation. The book was written in a rush, published in November 2008, so some of the data might not be totally up-to-date, as the authors tried to provide a wider public with a quick update of what has recently happened. Still I would strongly recommend giving it a try. Language should not be an obstacle, as ‘for the intelligent lay reader with no prior knowledge of economics, this is an indispensable, refreshingly jargon-free guide to the shocking events of the past year – and to what future may hold’. Neither price should be an obstacle – I am more than sure that every of you can afford to spare £7.99 for a piece of invaluable knowledge. Halfway through now, and so far so good. Perfect way to relax in between revision sessions (sadly I’m not kidding).

   Yup, so that’s it. You guys know where Waterstone’s is, don’t you? (click)

Cheers,
John A6

My Essay Competition Entries

Hi there,

   Every now and then, actually more like every two or three months, Economics Club runs an essay competition for everyone free to enter. Thought might post my little scribbles. Again, in hope to enrich your vast economic knowledge.

   (i) Does a free market equilibrium exist? - click - September/October 2008

   Ah, my first ever economics quasi-essay ‘thing’. Not much text, several copied graphs, bit of research. All of that after four weeks of Economics. Not bad. Managed to get second place. Out of three participants. Heh.

   (ii) Is this world essentially a centrally-planned economy? – click - November/December 2008

   Remember writing it, got really into Economics back then. 10 hours of research + reading + writing + editing = a link above. Good times. Enjoyed that. At least got a bit of understanding what the topic was roughly about – AS stuff. Ah, almost forgot to mention – got first place. Still, I think the number of participants did not exceed ten. Maybe not even five. Who knows? I don’t, Rene does though.

   (iii) Should mortgage lenders be nationalised? - click - February/March 2009

   A joined topic for Bellerbys London and Oxford. All I know is a student from London got the best essay. Who exactly that person is – have no idea. Just a feeling it might be a Vietnamese born in Poland. Just a feeling though. Anyway, at first was pretty much discouraged when read the topic. Didn’t have a clue what I could possibly write. But still managed to create something. Why? Simply because was hoping for everyone to be discouraged and would end up being the only participant. It wasn’t meant to be so though. Um, as for the writing, I think research this time took like 60-70% of time. Without a help of my invaluable friend – Google – this task wouldn’t be possible. Thank you. And the rest was just purely summarising what I had previously read.

   Yup, that’s it – my sentimental look back into the past. Hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers,
John A6

Recession Basics

As usual – Hi there,

   Information asymmetry – a situation in which one party in a transaction has more or superior information compared to another. This often happens in transactions where the seller knows more than the buyer, although the reverse can happen as well. Potentially, this could be a harmful situation because one party can take advantage of the other party’s lack of knowledge.

Source: investopedia.com

   Um, yeah, right. We all do know that. Basically, one party knows more than another. However, today, I would like to make the information more approachable for all of you. The fuzz about economic downturn has gone down, though, it is still very well present. For those of you, who have slept through all these months – I have good news. A summary of the past events. A dictionary of all the ‘fashionable-economic’ terminology. Numbers and dates within one click. Brought to you by BBC, not me, by the way.

Timeline: Credit crunch to downturn - click

   A look at how it all went wrong. What were the causes? Consequences? Actions undertaken? Results? Where do we stand right now? No one actually knows the answer for the last question, though for the former, there should be. And there is.

The layman's finance crisis glossary - click

   Mortgage-backed securities? Ponzi scheme? Rights issue? Some of these words you might have already come across, yet still have no idea what do they mean. No worries, this little dictionary with all the economics and business jargon shall explain you what each individual term mean in an easy to understand language. I swear. It won’t hurt. Um, maybe just a bit.

Global downturn: In graphics - click

   Millions, billions, trillions. We all can get easily confused while being faced with such a huge amount of numbers. In a link above, all the most essential bits are mentioned. No meaningless figures. Just what you really ought to know. Bit out of date (especially GDP and national debt forecasts), however still very useful.

Recession tracker - click

   Every month you hear about changing interest rate or rate of unemployment or GDP projection or all of them and many more. This little, yet extremely practical link will give you a great insight look into what is really happening, and what the current statistics are.

   Heh, so that’s it. Hope you really do have a look at those sites. And to finish off, a little quote,

‘Stupidity isn’t the lack of knowledge. It’s the wastage of it.’
   ~Jan Hoang Xuan

   So don’t be stupid and don’t waste the knowledge that is just in front of you. Convinced? Fine, now go and have some read. I will have some, too.

Cheers,
John A6

PS I know the quote was lame.

Unit 2 Specimen Paper - My Answer

Hi there,

   3^rd June. Economics exam day. Bet everyone is preparing day and night for that day. My class did the Unit 2 specimen paper a while ago, so thought I can post my little scribbles with a hope that someone will learn from my mistakes and enrich his/her knowledge. Off we go.

   First things first though. I would recommend you to try and do the paper by yourself, if you haven’t done it yet. Unit 2 consists of one data response question out of a choice of two. You can download question 1 from here and question 2 from here. Mark schemes are available here and here.

   And the interesting part now. My response to question 1 - click, and my response to question 2 - click. Huge credits go to Jerome who marked my answers and left some invaluable comments.

   Yup, so that’s it. Have a nice read. Hope you find this little exercise helpful.

Cheers,
John A6