Friday, November 30, 2012

Clash of the Titans

The Economics Research Council hafve an event where they invite three professors from the top three university Economics Department in the Country (Cambridge, Oxford, LSE) to give their predictions for the coming year and the results are published on this website. It is interesting to see how the different departments predictions are, showing that economic data / forecast is extremely difficult to make. The link is also on the Useful Links box. http://www.ercouncil.org/clash-of-the-titans/

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Nationalisation & Privatisation

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/unit-3-micro-revision-on-nationalisation?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economics_news+%28tutor2u+Economics+Blog%29#When:13:54:13Z

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

"I am the Chancellor" Competition

This competition is open to all AS Economics students (including 5 Termers).

The Chancellor of the Exchequer makes his budget speech to the House of Commons on Wednesday March 21st.

Your task is to prepare your own budget for the UK economy under the following headings:
1. What is the current economic situation?
2. What are the main aims of your economic policy?
3. What changes are you going to make to taxation, government spending, monetary policy and supply side policies?
4. What will the effect of these changes be on the UK economy?
(use economic theory to explain these effects)

You should produce:
a written assignment; and
a presentation of no more than 10 minutes.

Deadline: 20th March

There will be prizes for the best presentations and assignments and overall budgets.

To help you, check the Youtube clip of George Osborne’s Budget Speech March 2011, daily newspapers, BBC, and other relevant resources.

This will be graded by a letter grade and the top performer of each class will be presenting in front of a panel to decide the overall winner from the whole AS Economics CATS cohort.

Please contact Ian Tay (itay@catscambridge.com) or Ross Moon (rmoon@catscambridge.com)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Apologies for the Change in Timetables

To those affected by the recent timetable changes,

I sincerely apologise for the confusion caused by the recent changes in the timetables. As many of you have already known, we have had some change in staffing here at CATS; therefore, to accomodate these changes, some reshuffling had to be done with the teaching staff and the timetables.

Please feel free to contact me or any of the other economics tutors here at CATS and we will be happy to answer any of your queries. And, please do give a warm welcome to our new but very experienced tutor, Mr. Russell Moon.

I will be putting up the new surgery hours so please keep checking this space for more information.



Ian Tay MSc MA MSoc.Sc BA
Deputy Curriculum Director Social Sciences (Act)
Economics Tutor
CATS College Cambridge
Telephone: +44 (0) 1223 341431

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Live Coverage of the Debt Crisis and Greek Talks

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9070665/Debt-crisis-and-Greek-talks-live.html

Lots of Interesting News on BBC News Today....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16961758 - UK Trade

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16958764 - China Inflation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16941123 - UK Employment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16923108 - India GDP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16905060 - Euro Crisis and China

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Poverty in India

India is on its path to become one of the largest economies in the world, measured by Total GDP. But.......

If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest — almost the size of Indonesia. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 237.7 million Indians are currently undernourished (up from 224.6 million in 2008). And it is far worse if we use the minimal calorie intake norms accepted officially in India. By those counts (2200 rural/2100 urban), the number of Indians who cannot afford the daily minimum could equal the entire population of Europe.

extracted from: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2848305.ece?css=print

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Adam Smith on the Benefits of Competition

In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of those who exercise it, is always in proportion to the necessity they are under of making that exertion... and, where competition is free, the rivalship of competitors, who are all endeavouring to justle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavour to execute his work with a certain degree of exactness... Rivalship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I, Part III, Article III. ed. Edwin Cannan, 5th Edition London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1904.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Britain: The Next European Superpower

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-next-european-superpower-093000022.html

January 2012 Economics Exams

ECONOMICS 1 6EC01 Edexcel 11 COMPETITIVE MARKETS 12/01/12 09:00-10:30 Wesley Church Nave

ECONOMICS 2 6EC02 Edexcel 11 MANAGING THE ECONOMY 18/01/12 09:00-10.30 Wesley Church

ECONOMICS 3 6EC03 Edexcel 11 BUSINESS ECONOMICS & ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY 23/01/12 13:30-15:00 Wesley Church

GOOD LUCK TO ALL WHO ARE SITTING FOR THE EXAMS!!!!!!

Economics Surgery

Please be informed that there will only be one surgery hour this term - every Monday, 12.15-1.15PM at the OMR.

If you need help outside class hours and surgery hours, feel free to e-mail me or your tutor.

Searching for Volunteers to Update the Blog

If anyone is interested in updating the Blog with latest Economic news, please e-mail me at itay@catscambridge.com and I can give you access! This could be a good opportunity for you assist in a virtual classroom environment and share your knowledge with your peers.

Unemployment in Graphics

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117

Unit 1 AS Students: Think about Labour Immobility in analysing the differences in unemployment rates across the UK

Thursday, January 5, 2012

12 Things That Will Be Less Expensive in 2012

Think about the demand and supply conditions that will make the price of these products to go down in 2012.



http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=beeaf2ec-fa1d-45a5-9f44-02c6e35ef599&ucsort=4