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Economics
How societies allocate scarce resources.
From the logic of markets to the levers of national policy. Microeconomics, macroeconomics, money and banking, the schools of thought — and how it all plays out in the UK economy.
Microeconomics
How individuals, firms and markets make choices.
- Supply & demand Demand and supply curves, market equilibrium, shifts versus movements, and a brief look at elasticity. ●●○○○ 18 min
- Elasticity of demand & supply Price and income elasticity, their determinants, and why elasticity matters for pricing decisions and tax policy. ●●○○○ 18 min
- Market structures Perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition, and how UK competition policy and the CMA fit in. ●●●○○ 20 min
- Externalities & public goods Positive and negative externalities, public goods, why they cause market failure, and how governments can respond. ●●●○○ 19 min
Macroeconomics
Growth, inflation, unemployment and the whole economy.
- GDP & economic growth What GDP measures, real versus nominal, what drives growth, and why GDP is an imperfect gauge of wellbeing. ●●○○○ 18 min
- Fiscal vs monetary policy How fiscal policy (tax and spend) and monetary policy (interest rates and money supply) manage the economy. ●●○○○ 18 min
- Inflation How inflation is measured with the CPI, demand-pull versus cost-push causes, its effects, and the UK's 2% target. ●●○○○ 18 min
- Unemployment Types of unemployment, how the ILO and claimant measures differ, and the inflation trade-off via the Phillips curve. ●●●○○ 19 min
Money & Banking
What money is, and how banks and central banks shape it.
- Central banks & interest rates The Bank of England, the base rate, how monetary policy transmits to the economy, and operational independence since 1997. ●●●○○ 20 min
- How banks create money Most money is bank deposits created when commercial banks make loans, with the central bank steering the system. ●●●○○ 20 min
The UK Economy & Policy
Tax, spending and the institutions that steer Britain's economy.
Schools of Thought
The big traditions, from Smith to Keynes to the monetarists.
Economic History
The episodes that shaped how we think about economies.