It is the role of every government to safeguard its people in all matters including controlling the economy. Every economy faces different challenges including the business cycles that may emanate from the global market. In this paper we try to examine measures taken by the UK’s coalition government in trying to ensure that the economy benefits every citizen and reduces the overall burden to it. We consider the recent comprehensive review on spending. Many countries in the world have been suffering a recession in their economies and UK has not been an exception. A recession is a macroeconomic term describing one of the two business cycles that economies go through. The business cycles is characterized by either a boom where there are more business activities carried with a rapid economic growth and points of recession where there is retardation min economic growth. Various aspects and factors contribute to economic growth, which is measured through GDP. This factor may include savings, investments government spending plus other factors within either an increase or a decrease. Reduction in spending may lead to a recession while a n increase in spending may lead to expansion that is a boom in the economy. According to Maynard, John (1930), various measured may be taken by government in order to improve the state of the economy and probably move the economy from a recession or even speed this process. Various players can play a role in improving the economic though as Keynesian theory explains the government plays a great role in this compared to other players like the private sector. The government can therefore use various measures through its budgeting policies, fiscal policies and monetary policies by the Central Bank. It’s on this basis that the UK coalition government has proposed slashing of its budget to reduce the overall spending in the economy. Taxpayer isn't a “first-time homebuyer” with respect to that purchasing a new home unless he or she delays the purchase until the three-year period since his previous home ownership has ended. An individual whose principal residence is in rented quarters (and has been for at least three years) but who owns a vacation home can qualify as a first-time homeowner, because he has had no ownership interest in his principal residence. The Committee Report adds that the individual must not have had an ownership interest in a principle residence in the UK during the three-year period before the purchase of the home to which the credit applies.
ii. The economy is said to be experiencing recession when demands for certain products and services shrink. When demand falls, the prices will also decrease. When this happens, companies will not be able to make a lot of profit. To survive in the industry, they needed to cut some of their staffs. During this period of time, the rate of unemployment is rising. When they do not have enough workers, the productions are not as numerous as during the ‘booming’ state. Because of the...
...rall due to the level of consensus there is relatively little difference between the way the economy has panned out between the conservatives period in charge end the dominance that the Labour party currently are enjoying. On the whole the economy has become relatively depoliticised since the Thatcher years as politicians have less control over this increasingly globalised and privatised aspect of the agenda. Now with Brown’s decision to give the Bank of England the power to set the level of interest rates the economy has become less prone to state intervention then ever especially with a clear end to the grip that Trade Unions once had over the Labour party. Overall state intervention over this period has decreased and barring a crisis it is likely that this will remain the case unless the Liberal Democrats manage to gain power, even through a coalition government.
A recession is where there is temporary economic deterioration which lasts longer than a few months, sometimes years. This can be seen by the employment rate decreasing and the reduction of trade and industry work. This is determined by the Gross Domestic Product (GPD) which is a government statistic which shows the total country’s economy movement. This is measured every 3 months (quarterly) and it is said that if after two consecutive quarters the GPD is down then the country is seen to be in recession. (Kollewe, 2009). The most recent recession in the UK kick-started in 2008, which was seen to be one of the worst recessions the UK has seen since the Great Depression. In July 2008 was when it became increasingly obvious that we was about to enter a recession; the unemployment rate kept rising, the housing industry started to cut thousands of jobs and the whole-sale industry was declining in production. (Allen, 2010)
The business cycle is the short-run alternation between economic downturns and economic upturns (Investopedia n.d.). A recession is an economic downturn and happens in every country and some recessions are worse than others and the output of GDP and employment are falling farther and faster. The great depression lasted from 1929-1933 and was a deep prolonged downturn in the business cycle before a recovery/expansion of the business cycle occurred and GDP and employment started to rise (Krugman & Wells. 2012). The next recession lasted from 1981-1982 and was comparatively smaller than the first (Krugman & Wells. 2012). More recently in 2001 a slump in the economy was noted and was followed by the great rescission of 2007-2009 (Krugman & Wells. 2012). Recession is defined as a “period of at least two consecutive quarters (a quarter is three months) during which the total output of the economy shrinks” (Krugman & Wells. 2012). In the United States the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is assigning the task of determining when a recession begins and the NBER looks at a variety of economic indicators such as employment and production (Krugman & Wells. 2012). Every business cycle recession has a negative impact on the economy the recession’s deferrer on the strength of the impact on the country. Consider the two charts for Figure 21-5 of the more recent recessions of 2001 and 2007. The Recession of 2001 did not last as long as the recession of 2007 and did not have as much of an economical hardship on the business cycle and as shown 2007 dipped greatly in industrial production. In the second chart it demonstrates a recession at the point the economy turns from expansion to recession or the business-cycle peak. Then in the char...
Only what to produce and how to produce, since distribution is not the task of economics.
Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea was written by Mark Blyth, and published by the Oxford University Press in 2013. The text conceptualizes the theory of austerity, and provides countless scenarios in which austerity has failed to combat inauspicious economic conditions, for example, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and the Great Recession of 2007. Austerity is a fiscal policy mechanism used by governments during business cycle contractions to reduce government deficits, usually by increasing taxes, reducing government expenditure or a combination of both tactics.
Government spending is a highly debated topic as to how much money should be spent and how it should be spent, but the fact remains government spending is rising each year and will become unsustainable in the future without major changes. Government spending is currently around 40% of GDP as compared to 7% at the start of the twentieth century (Chantrill, NP). Government spending has had ebbs and flows that can be traced since the start of the twentieth century, which include two world wars and a great depression. However, from the 1980’s through the early 2000’s government spending was lower to mid 30% range of GDP (Chantrill, NP). Increase in spending has been seen since the stock market crash of 2008, to the current levels of around 40% of GDP (Chantrill, NP). Various reasons are behind the major increases of government spending, but the “...
One of the tools of Keynesian approach is to adopt expansionary fiscal policy to increase economic activity within economy. Expansionary fiscal policy aims to cut taxes and increase government spend...
Conclusively, all of the policies discussed have both advantageous and disadvantageous affects, and so there currently is no definite answer to the problem. Inflation can be reduced; however doing so would sacrifice the fragile recovery of the British economy. The government must therefore decide which process is more important for the long-term health of the British economy, and decide on the policies that will best improve either situation. Either way, living standards are set to fall, and real income will also decrease in the foreseeable future.
In time of economic crisis the government has a choice to cut spending or increase spending for public goods and services. “In 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Rein- vestment Act, which authorized $787 billion in spending to promote job growth and bolster economic activity”(Stratmann/Okolski 3). John Maynard Keynes, an economist of 20th century, suggest that the government should run a deficit if it will create jobs and increase capital gain. This theory support the current stimulus package that has been introduce during President Obama’s term. Although the flaw with this concept is that it makes the assumption the government has done studies and understands which areas needs the funding the most and knows where it will be beneficial, realistically that is not true. “Federal spending is less likely to stimulate growth when it cannot accurately target the projects where it will be most productive” (Stratmann/Okolski 2). This can be seen because political figures will spend money where it directly supports their needs as well. For instance, the political figure would rather spend money to things that will yield a p...
The government plays a vital role in making business policies. For example, the UK government in 2014 budget the government has introduced a rise of 40% in the tax. As a consequence, the lending interest rate falls but the taxation is still high. Since 2010, the growth of GDP in UK was at -11% and by 2013, the GDP growth was at -6.6%, this is a good indication though it is at slowest rate.
There are many debates concerning macroeconomic policies and how they can help prevent present and future economic issues. Over the years, the government has encountered major recessions such as the Great Depression in the 1930’s and in the 2000’s. Economists were able to help the economy grow by finding solutions to increase government spending and balancing government budget. These solutions helped fight recessions. In this essay, I will discuss the increased government spending to fight recessions and balanced government budget. I will discuss both the advocates’ and critics’ position. I will also state the position in which I support and defend that position.
The disparities between the two views of the economy lead to very different policies that have produced contradictory results. The Keynesian theory presents the rational of structuralism as the basis of economic decisions and provides support for government involvement to maintain high levels of employment. The argument runs that people make decisions based on their environments and when investment falls due to structural change, the economy suffers from a recession. The government must act against this movement and increase the level of employment by fiscal injections and training of the labour force. In fact, the government should itself increase hiring in crown corporations. In contrast the Neoliberal theory attributes the self-interest of individuals as the determinant of the level of employment.
An economic recession is when spending slows down due to less money and jobs. At a certain point, the government would have to step in and implement expansionary economic policies. One action the government would take would include conducting expansionary fiscal policy, the other, expansionary monetary policy involving the Federal Reserve Bank, both of which effect the money supply, spending, interest rates, aggregate demand, GDP, and employment(Amacher & Pate, 2012).
It is difficult for government to achieve all the macroeconomics objectives at the same time. Conflicts between macroeconomics objectives means a policy irritating aggregate demand may reduce unemployment in the short term but launch a period of higher inflation and exacerbate the current account of the balance of payments which can also dividend into main objectives and additional objectives (N. T. Macdonald,