Tuesday, August 31, 2010

British Lifestyle report-quiz

British Lifestyle report



Our word or phrase, of the week this week is disposable income. The guardian.co.uk article I have chosen explains what is happening on the British High Street and how consumers are choosing to spend their money at the moment.
Underwear, alcohol, pets and beauty treatments top the list, are these products important in your country too? Discuss how people in your country spend their disposable income.
Why is disposable income so important to economists? Discuss with your teacher and class.
Does the information in this article fit with your understanding of British Lifestyle ? Discuss with a colleague.
Have people in your class changed their holiday patterns because of the recession?
Write a short questionnaire, ask your class mates your questions and then prepare a report on this topic; do not mention names in the report, then give the report to your teacher for checking.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

This week's Quiz

Structural problems of the US Economy



America's century is over, but it will fight on


This week’s Guardian article is a longer one than usual, it is about the structural problems in the American economy.


We have had quite a few of these negative articles in the press this week and I am not sure that so much negativity helps any economy.

What do you think? Discuss the following question with a fellow student or your tutor.

Does constant negativity in the press depress the people and the economy further?

There is a lot of good vocabulary in this article- check you know the meaning of the following words before you read the article and then answer the quiz which will be in the next post.

Deepseated
Pithy
Robust
Foreclosures
Liquidity
Stringent
Retrenchment
Bleaker

Looking forward to chatting again next week

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Quiz for How the US economy is being 'Japanised'.

Financial word of the week: How the US economy is being 'Japanised'.-economic sclerosis

Financial word of the week: How the US economy is being 'Japanised'.-economic sclerosis

How the US economy is being 'Japanised'.-economic sclerosis




The article I have chosen for this week is critical of the Federal Reserve’s methods of stimulating the US economy. One of the problems highlighted by the author Chris Payne is that if they continue in this way the economy will become more ‘Japanised’ and it seems to him that "economic sclerosis" is becoming seen as a positive rather than a negative outcome.
Read the article and take the quiz in the next post.
Further activities
Discuss the article with a partner, do you think that the dangers Chris Payne mentions are real? What should the Federal Reserve do to stimulate the American Economy?
Research the 1930’s depression, Keynesian economic theory or the lost Japanese decade and give a short 5-10 minute talk to your class or teacher.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Pound vs dollar - The key for cable



Your article this week is from Reuters news service and is a highly technical article on Foreign exchange pound versus dollar. In the article Elsa Lignos, a currency strategist, discusses the key to cable which she says is the dollar side of the exchange at the moment.
What is the value of the pound against the dollar at this moment? Check this link and find out. You can also find the value of many other currencies against the British pound. What is the value of your currency against the pound? Check to find out.
The article states that additional large changes in the value of the dollar are unlikely. Which paragraph tells you that?
The article goes on to talk about the economic information which has supported the pound recently, what is that? Discuss with your partner or your teacher.

A quiz on some of the expressions in this article will follow this blog post. Bye till next week.

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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

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Monday, August 2, 2010

Quiz for quantative easing


Quantitative Easing


This week you have an economist from the other side of the pond to read about. Ben Bernanke who is the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve is talking about avoiding a further plunge into recession and it would seem that his views are not the same as those of the European politicians.He is much more in favour of quantitative easing
Read the Guardian article and then you have more quiz questions to answer. Good Luck and have fun with economics.