Rollercoaster for the Jubilee funfair
Party stalls went up and libations flowed for the Platinum Jubilee. But no fairground is complete without some thrilling rides. Over the last month, capital markets chipped in with a rollercoaster of their own: equity indices jumped in the first few days of May, only to sink frighteningly low mid-month. At times it felt like markets were in meltdown, with investors buffeted by fierce global economic headwinds.
Insight: Economics ‘the scarce science’
If you took an introductory Economics class today, the tutor would probably start by discussing some key terms. These would most likely include ‘utility’, ‘budget set’ or ‘indifference curves’. After giving their technical definitions, you might even be shown how to draw supply and demand curves and asked to find their ‘equilibrium’ point. There would still be a long way to go in your economics training, but this style of analysis would be repeated throughout most of it – growing ever-more sophisticated as extra terms or features are included. Curiously though, one word almost never gets a firm definition: “economics”.