Utopia, you are standing in it!

In the 2016 Cambridge AS Economics syllabus there is a new topic which looks at the areas of privatisation and nationalisation in an economy. Below are some notes on the topic.

Nationalisation is when a government chooses to take an industry into state ownership in order to safeguard the supply of a good or service.

Privatisation is the transfer of ownership of property or businesses from a government to a privately owned entity.

Potential Benefits of Privatisation

1. Improved Efficiency – private companies have a profit incentive to cut costs and be more efficient.
2. Lack of Political Interference – Governments are motivated by political pressures rather than sound economic and business sense.
3. Short Term view – A government many think only in terms of next election
4. Shareholders – a private firm has pressure from shareholders to perform efficiently
5. Increased Competition – more firms mean greater competition and efficiency
6. Government will raise revenue from…

Today, the new Prime Minister Theresa May makes her first diplomatic trip to meet her counterparts in Germany and France.  Here Dr Simon Payling, Senior Fellow of the Commons 1422-1504 section, blogs about parliament’s reaction to another major realignment in European relations, although in very different circumstances, Henry V’s attempt to unify the crowns of England and France in 1420…

On 21 May 1420 Henry V’s great victories in France, and the divisions in the French kingdom that had allowed them, culminated in the treaty of Troyes. Charles VI of France, incapacitated by recurrent bouts of madness over nearly 30 years, agreed that, on his death, the kingdom of France would not be inherited by his son and heir, the Dauphin, Charles (the future Charles VII), but would pass instead to Henry V, who would take as his wife the Dauphin’s sister, Katherine. In the meantime, the English king…

Connor Lloyd, 20, is someone who has as little judgment as he does self-control. That would explain first taking police on a high speed chase in Cambridge and then, after he escaped, he posted his route and bragged on social media. He is now going to jail.

This month’s topic for discussion is an article called “The Suffocation Model: Why Marriage is Becoming an All or Nothing Institution” by Eli J. Finkel, Elaine O. Cheung, Lydia F. Emery, Kathleen L. Carswell, and Grace M. Larson. It’s a short article and is more of a summary of a research program than a self-contained argument.

Basically, it goes something like this. As societies get wealthier, marriages fundamentally change from being institutions for physical survival to institutions for personal fulfillment. Another article by Finkel and collaborators call it “climbing Mount Maslow,” to suggest the contemporary people don’t have the resources to make the current version of marriage work. The main point made by these researchers is that modern people are investing less time at home so it makes it harder for modern marriages to succeed in being satisfying.

I am not a sociologist of the family, so I…

We previously discussed the tragic death of Lane Graves, 2, at a Disney resort after an alligator attack. Things are already pretty bad for the company, but there is yet another twist. A Walt Disney World intern was fired after she posted objected to a sign advising employees to tell guests that they do not know of any alligators in the waters. After an outcry, the company has rehired Shannon Sullivan. The question remains whether such evidence could be introduced to show the company’s alleged continued misrepresentation or concealment of the risks associated with the alligators.

This is an updated blog post. The original post provided notes for my lecture on the 15th June at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, as part of the  Ringvorlesung: The Future of the UK: Between Internal and External Divisions. I had written it before the vote in the UK to leave the EU, which provided the only realistic chance of a second referendum on Scottish independence. So, the background sections remain the same, but I update the contemporary section with reference to Brexit and its consequences.

The advertised abstract read:

The vote to remain in the UK, in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, did not settle the matter. Nor did it harm the fortunes of the pro-independence party, the Scottish National Party. Instead, its popularity has risen remarkably, and major constitutional change remains high on the agenda, particularly during the run up to a…