Econ Articles by Mr Spot

A New Way To Measure Povery

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:17:25 UTC

Very interesting article which questions the established ways of measuring and looking at inequality and poverty.

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:27:11 UTC

A huge moment in China's economic history....

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:36:37 UTC

Very clear explanation of how the continuation of the Middle East War will have very large economic impacts.

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:38:56 UTC

How a country can improve its tourism industry. This is a spec topic on the Theme 4 Development section.

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:41:03 UTC

With an ageing population, those people's income, wealth and spending become even more important for a country's economy.

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:44:04 UTC

All about the implications for the UK rate of inflation of events in the Middle East

mrspot — 2026-03-08 10:45:07 UTC

Excellent article about the longer term background behind persistent UK inflation

mrspot — 2026-03-08 22:50:29 UTC

Ranked: The World’s Most Valuable Brands in 2026 https://share.google/8ju3FlJdR2eUaBX0N

mrspot — 2026-03-09 17:12:04 UTC

The G7 nations have taken emergency action to try and control the price of oil. Will it work?

mrspot — 2026-03-09 17:22:04 UTC

If you are in my SFC1 classes, the next topic is going to be unemployment, so good to read this....

mrspot — 2026-03-10 18:59:08 UTC

Spanish economy (3% GDP growth 2025) offers work visas to illegal immigrants

mrspot — 2026-03-10 20:45:48 UTC

Excellent 8 minute video about the situation of oil supply in the Middle East and the economic implications

mrspot — 2026-03-15 07:54:55 UTC

Zero growth now, inflation to come = what economists call "stagflation" (stagnation + inflation)

mrspot — 2026-03-17 12:04:55 UTC

Extremely interesting blog post that develops the spec idea about the limitations of GDP figures

mrspot — 2026-03-17 12:07:47 UTC

Chance of US recession in next year 49%, will rise quickly unless Middle East situation eases

mrspot — 2026-03-17 14:49:39 UTC

A long read that is fascinating, infuriating and terrifying

mrspot — 2026-03-17 14:59:23 UTC

Absolutely fascinating article about the difficulties for young unemployed peope (trigger warning: some went to good universities...)

mrspot — 2026-03-17 22:46:18 UTC

Very useful development case study. From one of the poorest countries in Europe, to higher GDP per capita than Japan and a bigger economy than Switzerland

mrspot — 2026-03-17 22:54:57 UTC

Taking the very long run view - out of the last 2000 years, for 1800 of them China and India have had the largest share of world GDP.....

mrspot — 2026-03-18 08:41:35 UTC

China "produces more oil than Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates.... The problem is that China consumes more energy than America, Russia and India combined—an amount that dwarfs its domestic output." (You may need to activate your free College Economist subscription to read this.)

mrspot — 2026-03-18 13:10:27 UTC

Very interesting Micro article about how Reese's have changed their ingredients due to market pressures - but do they still taste as delicious?

mrspot — 2026-03-18 17:48:14 UTC

Anti-orthodoxy point of view by a UCL Prof arguing that raising interest rates aren't the right solution to cost-push inflation

mrspot — 2026-03-19 12:36:20 UTC

The economic effects keep on getting worse....

mrspot — 2026-03-19 13:16:14 UTC

Interesting article which reveals a lot about Irish trade. Over half of their export revenue comes from "Chemicals and Related Products", which includes pharmaceuticals, and most of this to the USA. Ireland is famous for attracting US tech firms, but it seems US Biomedical giants are more important.

mrspot — 2026-03-19 13:18:27 UTC

Taiwan GDP growth forecast to be 7.28% this year, largely due to tech and AI industries.

mrspot — 2026-03-19 13:39:58 UTC

Quick to read summary of the 2026 World Happiness Report, not just about Cyprus!

mrspot — 2026-03-19 22:47:19 UTC

mrspot — 2026-03-20 10:05:37 UTC

UK gender pay gap - 13% and falling. UK gender wealth gap - 21% and rising.

mrspot — 2026-03-23 17:52:48 UTC

The huge size of the US national debt is incredible and difficult to comprehend....

mrspot — 2026-03-24 11:13:39 UTC

The UK minimum wage does seem to be one of the highest in Europe. One reservation I would have about this is that for some of the countries that do not have national minimum wages - especially Scandinavian - it would probably be higher than the UK if they did.

mrspot — 2026-03-25 08:56:05 UTC

Everyone will be waiting with fear and excitement this time next month for March's inflation figures....

mrspot — 2026-03-26 09:24:53 UTC

As well as very interesting in itself, this article is a mine of information for Micro real-world examples.

mrspot — 2026-03-27 08:50:14 UTC

Very relevant for Development questions - since 2000, extreme global poverty (those earning less than $3 a day) has more than halved from 2.2 bn to less than 1bn. Unfortunately, the prediction over the next 20 years is for it either remain the same or rise.

mrspot — 2026-03-29 22:54:25 UTC

The two child benefit cap is being scrapped in April. This article talks about it and has lots of other useful detail about the UK benefits system.

mrspot — 2026-03-30 08:08:55 UTC

Oil prices now $117 a barrel, risen by 60% since the start of the conflict.

mrspot — 2026-03-30 09:36:51 UTC

Good sense check on what the current level of UK Unemployment means. 5.2% is high for the UK itself compared to its own recent history, but below the European average, much less than similar countries like France and Spain, and almost half the rate in Finland. Surprised that Russia's is so low...

mrspot — 2026-03-31 07:23:29 UTC

Fascinating and scholarly article about UBI. I never knew it's historical roots and how comparable they are to todays AI revolution.

mrspot — 2026-04-04 23:01:15 UTC

2.7m people affected. More income but higher prices, which effect outweighs the other?

mrspot — 2026-04-04 23:09:01 UTC

These predictions about AI's future economic impact seem very plausible to me: there is some good news amongst the bad....

mrspot — 2026-04-06 07:30:32 UTC

Excellent in depth Micro article about OJ.

mrspot — 2026-04-06 20:08:22 UTC

A strong anti minimum wage rise point of view.

mrspot — 2026-04-08 12:19:28 UTC

Shell to earn between $200 to $700 million more this year so far is no surprise. The surprise is that most of it will be in its renewables division. The article doesn't say why - can you figure it out?

mrspot — 2026-04-09 11:47:57 UTC

11 firms are worth $1 trillion or more, have you heard of all of them? If/when Space X goes public, it would be the 12th. By the way, these values are what is called "market cap(italization)" which is the price of one share in the company * the total number of shares.

mrspot — 2026-04-09 21:49:08 UTC

This might perhaps be the way to end global extreme poverty? (By the way if you didn't know, all CLC students can get a free subscription to The Economist, Teams message me if you don't know how.)

mrspot — 2026-04-12 07:54:22 UTC

Interesting in itself but EXTREMELY useful as an example of the tension between allowing imports while encouraging FDI.

mrspot — 2026-04-16 19:58:35 UTC

The great news - UK GDP grew by an amazing 0.5% in February. The not so great - the Iran war is predicted to have a bigger negative effect on the UK than any other major economy.

mrspot — 2026-04-16 22:11:52 UTC

This is absolutely perfect for the topic of World Bank and development aid. Hugely recommended for those about to take final exams

mrspot — 2026-04-17 08:07:42 UTC

Very useful piece about the possible consequences of cutting foreign aid.

mrspot — 2026-04-17 17:40:14 UTC

Some interesting comparisons with the UK - some much smaller places like Belgium / Hong Kong / Singapore / Taiwan export more. Netherlands almost twice more. They often have a very large current account surplus. Why do you think that is? Can't all be tulips.....!!

mrspot — 2026-04-20 16:06:29 UTC

Write down your top 10, bet no one gets them all!

mrspot — 2026-04-26 07:31:39 UTC

Lots of very useful details

mrspot — 2026-04-26 12:13:10 UTC

How long the effects may be - maybe 8 months until full effects on prices... very good ev point.

mrspot — 2026-04-27 16:22:43 UTC

This story has massive implications for both the future of the UK workforce (rising inactivity rates) and of government finances (rising health care expenditure)

mrspot — 2026-04-28 21:39:19 UTC

Never released that Chinese banks were so dominant in the global finance sector

mrspot — 2026-05-06 16:07:54 UTC

Excellent last minute high level monetary policy knowledge

mrspot — 2026-05-06 20:13:50 UTC

Fascinating account of why the Irish economy may not be quite as strong as it seems

mrspot — 2026-05-19 14:28:07 UTC

Has to be the biggest failure in a UK government economic policy this century

Buy British and trade issues

mrspot — 2026-07-01 09:37:39 UTC

Very interesting article (from a free market perspective) about plans for the UK govt to only give contracts to UK firms, and how this might anger our trading partners. Do you think it is a good idea?

mrspot — 2026-07-01 09:39:30 UTC

Deliberately nasty or just an accident?

mrspot — 2026-07-01 09:42:01 UTC

As you know, Keir Starmer is being forced out as Prime Minister. Yesterday he announced £15bn of extra defence spending; today, it seems that the government doesn't have the money to pay for it. Just a mistake or deliberately making it difficult for the next PM?

Deliberately nasty or just an accident?

mrspot — 2026-07-01 09:42:45 UTC