Mrs Barber (Head of Business and Economics)

‘Be curious about the world’. This was the closing piece of advice from Tim Harford at the end of the Economics in Action online conference that the Sixth Form Economists attended. The day started with a fascinating history lesson from Stephen King (Senior Economic Adviser at HSBC) on the rise of China and India in the global world and the impact this has had on the UK and Europe.  That was followed by an excellent talk on monetary policy from Becky Maule (Bank of England), providing the Upper Sixth with some timely revision. The last speaker of the morning was Ayeisha Thomas-Smith (Broadcaster) who forwarded her views on how the austerity measures of the coalition government have impacted our ability to deal with coronavirus.  Engaging, forthright and with plenty of room for discussion. 

After the lunch break, the afternoon started with a very useful exam techniques session extoling the virtues of paragraphs, concise sentences and reading the question – not surprisingly the speaker, Peter Jordan, was an examiner with many years experience. Sam Dumitriu (The Entrepreneurs Network) talked about information asymmetry and how government intervention can lead to government failure, and also the gig economy from a macroeconomic perspective, using informative and enlightening examples for both. And, to the final speaker of the day Tim Harford (journalist and author) who argued how essential statistics are and gave his simple rules for using them successfully.

A wonderful way to spend a day!