Why are there no balance of payment problems between England and Wales?
(Extra marks will be available to candidates noting the implications of their answer for the case in favour of the United Kingdom joining the Euro.)
Economics Tripos old chestnut (suddenly wholly relevant).
Update. Those candidates wishing to discuss additionally balance of payments problems between England and Scotland may do so.
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15 comments:
Because all the money for driving on the Severn Crossing is collected on the England side.
Is this the correct answer?
You will have your results , S, and your class. Rather old- fashioned degree standards might be applied (but then, it's an old-fashioned question).
That all wealth generated in Wales, even the cost of getting there, accrues to the English, looks like a winner to me. Would you care to try for the extra marks?
Why not HG!
I have a freshly licked pencil and the back of an envelope from SAGA right here at my fingertips...
Black ink pen or biro; answers on both sides of the paper. You know the rules S., everyone resits their exams at this time of year - I think it's a hot, sunny days effect.
a Saga envelope? I'm having an anti-age moment, but then it will keep coming towards me and I don't like the look of it.
That all wealth generated in Wales, even the cost of getting there, accrues to the English, looks like a winner to me.
The English Taxpayer subsidises the Welsh and there are no BOP problems for the same reason there are no BOP problems between Barnett and Finchley . They are in the same country . Or is this a trick question HG
Why not remain magically young Like Ursula Undress in " She ". On the other hand with the manifest fascinations of your mighty intellect would it be fair on mankind for you to be eternally youthful as well.
Too much for one women surely.
I was viewing it from a certain distance N, and even from here it has a very nasty aspect. How is it looking from where you are?
Ursula Andress is a cheap Anita Ekberg (but then I'm an Italian and French film groupie) and it wasn't only Anita who had an ironic encounter with a fountain; fountains are a no no.
You too, have got most of it in one, but with a certain London bias; there is more, as ND could certainly say. Scroblene is going for the EU extra marks.
but then I'm an Italian and French film groupie)
Do you wear a Beret ?I don`t do that Euro film thing myself but I would probably pretend to be interested to impress you.
" Ah yes HG if only that love scene had gone on another twenty minutes the Auteur could have dissected the infinite mystery of self and other in the twist of blue grey smoke skein into the sunlight ...I feel bereft... Can we see it again ... and then perhaps some atonal Jazz.Oh Rapture "(Bet you`d have fitted nicely on my old Scooter though.)
Ahem
I shall return to see the denoument of the Wales mystery
when it comes to the baleful science I am an emprically-driven micro-economist
& leave the macro strictly to CU
now, back to the Plum-Stalin thread
I was viewing it from a certain distance N, and even from here it has a very nasty aspect.
You mean age . I thought you claimed to be of Methusalan vintage HG it would be exceedingly hard to guess from your writing . I`m 43 and I my own mortality has sidled up to whisper hallo over the last three years . A most unpleasant house guest .
Speed cameras, Miss ?
In answer to the original question.
My vote for the best answer goes to scroblene, for both wit and ring of truth.
But let me attempt the more academic pedantic answer that might have been expected in an exam.
Trade imbalances (more precisely, current account imbalances) between countries using different currencies create the need for the deficit country either to devalue its currency with consequent acceleration of inflation, or to contract demand with consequent unemployment; pressure on the surplus country to revalue or expand is asymmetrically weak.
Between regions in the same country, or between countries using a common currency (whether England and Wales, or a hypothetically euroized UK and the rest of the euro-zone), such problems do not arise, or rather are easily and automatically solved by the fact that debts and credits across borders are no different from any other debt and credit between arbitrarily selected bunches of economic agents. They are counterbalanced by financial flows in the same currency.
Moreover, central budgets - like the UK budget with respect to Wales (more to the point, with respect to Scotland trade deficit with the rest of the UK) or the EU structural funds with respect to the UK - might at least partially take the brunt of the imbalance through regional or cross-country transfers. And, finally, assets are much more liquid domestically (i.e. within a single currency area) than internationally, thus facilitating the settling of imbalances within a single currency area.
I don't claim the prize, but may I have a cigar?
Caronte, would you care to be chancellor of the exchequer?
I thought you'd never ask...
I think the intrinsic effects of money systems are a very interesting subject. Introducing a money system is like building a road into a forest, and some would say that not all the results are necessarily desirable.
There is also the question of how deeply the system penetrates. Human life wasn't always so monetized, and some would say that we need to reconstruct money systems to encourage the effects we want. Have you read Richard Douthwaite's "The Ecology Of Money"?
As to the Severn Bridge, which my father helped construct (and I was there when HM The Queen opened it), I'd say Wales is so lovely that it's only right to pay to get into it. Those who don't like it can leave for nothing! Therefore, given time, Wales should be entirely full of completely contented people. So perhaps one-way trade barriers are a good idea.
I'm all for Wales for those who appreciate what it is and what it was, Sacks; awful damage has been done in the last 40 years I fear.
As for monetized societies - I am off topic probably but confess I have had a weakness always for Rossell Island curriencies and all that lovely theory on exchange systems.
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