JKP Entry: Can Austerity 2.0 Bring Back Growth?
Can Austerity 2.0 Bring Back Growth and Prosperity to the UK Economy? Introduction In October 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £40 billion tax increase, the largest since 1993, aiming to address the UK’s budget deficit and tackle the £22 billion ‘black hole’ from the Tories. Austerity refers to the policies aiming to reduce government deficits via spending cuts or tax hikes. Despite the Labour … Continue reading JKP Entry: Can Austerity 2.0 Bring Back Growth?
Gold Standard vs Fiat Money
Ever since the creation of money, when society disengaged from barter (trading goods with one another) and introduced a medium of exchange (money), humanity has most commonly tied the value of money to a commodity. For most of the first millennia, money was tied to silver or bimetallic standards. However these systems posed a significant number of problems, especially in times of economic crisis. As … Continue reading Gold Standard vs Fiat Money
Technological decoupling
For most of the last hundred years, globalisation felt inevitable — driven by technology that appeared to bring the world closer together. With the onset of the internet, supply chains became more complex and tightly interwoven, even between countries that wouldn’t traditionally see eye to eye, something that was seldom achieved by precursory trade systems. But lately, that momentum has started to shift. A growing … Continue reading Technological decoupling
The Economics of Concorde
Concorde. It dominated the skies for over a quarter of a century, and was the first, and for now, only, commercial supersonic jet. But in late 2003, still a technological marvel, Concorde left the sky for one last time. Even today, Concorde is put alongside the Apollo missions as one of the most technologically advanced projects this world has ever seen. Yet, despite halving the … Continue reading The Economics of Concorde
Trump’s Tariffs: Short Term Protection or Long Term Economic Risk?
Note: This article was written in March/April 2025, when the initial set of tariffs had been proposed. Trump’s Tariffs: Short-Term Protection or Long-Term Economic Risk? Introduction On November 5th, 2024, Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States, triggering wide-spread impacts for the global economy. Almost immediately, he resumed his previous trade war with China and launched new tariff-based confrontations on Canada and … Continue reading Trump’s Tariffs: Short Term Protection or Long Term Economic Risk?
Book Review: The Millionaire Next Door
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko is an analysis of millionaires in America. The study detailed the inner workings of their lives and consumption habits and compared them against other millionaires. The book entails how anyone of almost any income can amass considerable wealth if they spend and save correctly. The American lie has remained prevalent for centuries: you’re … Continue reading Book Review: The Millionaire Next Door
The Bretton Woods System
The Bretton Woods System: a Blueprint for a Globalised Economy The Bretton Woods System was a set of international economic and financial agreements established in July 1944 during a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, towards the end of WW2. The agreements intended to establish a renewed framework for the global economy, stabilise the international monetary system, and prevent economic conflicts such as protectionism … Continue reading The Bretton Woods System
Lifting the German Debt Brake
Germany has a unique constitution. It was born from the ashes of the Second World War and is one of the only countries legally limiting government borrowing as a percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (the value of all the goods and services produced in a country in a year). Governments around the world spend a considerable amount of money every year on everything from health services … Continue reading Lifting the German Debt Brake
Cuba’s Currency Crisis
How a dual system distorted the economy For decades, Cuban people lived with two different currencies in their pockets: the CUP (Cuban National Peso) and the CUC (Convertible Peso). However, it was not always this way. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the CUC was introduced in order to stabilise the economy—but at what cost? Whilst the implementation of the CUC helped stabilise the … Continue reading Cuba’s Currency Crisis
Nash’s Equilibrium and Dating
The Dating Game and Nash Equilibrium: Why Most Don’t Find the Perfect Match Love, Logic, and the Inevitable Bad Match: Dating, as simple as it sounds, should be for people to meet, like each other, and form a perfect match. Reality, however, is rather messy—it is governed by strategic decision making and inefficiencies similar to those found in ‘game theory’. Dating at Eton is one-sided and … Continue reading Nash’s Equilibrium and Dating
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