More International Trade

In this video I go over the theory of trade and specialisation and explore the costs and benefits of this.

Comparative and Absolute Advantage

In this video I explore what absolute and comparative advantage is and some of the problems associated with it.

International Trade - Theory of Trade and Specialisation

In this video I go over the theory of trade and specialisation and explore the costs and benefits of this.

Introduction to religious language

Below is my video tutorial on an introduction to religious language.





Transcript

Introduction into religious Language

What is religious Language?

Religious Language: Specialist religious vocabulary as well as religious, moral and ethical claims.

What are the uses and purposes of religious language?

Religious Language has three functions.

1. Expressively: They are used to express feelings and emotions. Peter Donovan argues that religion encourages to discipline their emotions in the right direction e.g. forgive wrong-doers. 
2. Performatively: To perform an event e.g. a wedding.
3. Prescriptively: To encourage or prevent people from acting in a certain way.

Difficulties with religious language

1. It is subjective
2. Difficult to describe something so out of this world and immaterial.
3. Is humanizing an effective mechanism of describing something immaterial.
4. Language is sometimes used univocally. (This means the words used to describe God mean exactly the same as when words are used to describe humans). However, is it fair to say that when we call God faithful we mean the same as when we call a dog faithful?
5. If on the other hand we use words equivocally - this means that a word used to describe God does not mean the same as if it was used to describe a human. However, then can we ever know the meaning of a word?
6. The last problem which this whole unit is about is the meaningless/meaningfulness of religious statements. Religious believers claim that religious language is cognitive i.e. it can be verified or falsified but other philosopher dismiss religion on the basis that it is non-cognitive i.e. you cannot verify or falsify it.

Univocal vs Equivocal language activity

In the OCR textbook there is an activity for you to do. 

'Great is our God, the creator, whose work is perfect, for all his ways are just, a faithful God who does no wrong; how righteous and true is he!" (Deuteronomy 32:3-4)

Great, creator, just faithful, righteous, and true are all words used to describe God. They can also be used to describe people. 

Draw a diagram to show what we mean when we use these words to describe people and again when words are used to describe God.

Below I have scanned in my work and I would love to see some of your work. So once you've done the work email me it and I will upload it on here :) 

Patterns of International Trade

Patterns of International Trade

Aims: To be able to identify patterns of trade between developed and developing countries. To understand changes in trade flows.


Please find transcript below.

UK Exports and Imports 

Exports

• Cars
• Pharmaceuticals 
• Petroleum oils
• Aircraft and associated equipment
• Telecommunication equipment
• Tourism
• Financial services
• Legal services
• Music/ Entertainment (think King’s Speech)
• Steal

Imports

• Natural gas
• Clothing/Textiles
• Different types of stones/minerals
• Furniture
• Paper
• Toys/games
• Alcohol beverages
• Sliver 
• Sporting goods
• Baby carriages 

UK’s top trading Partners - ranked in order (2009)

Export Partners	Import Partners
USA	Germany
Germany	USA
France	China
Netherlands	Netherlands
Ireland	France

From the data above we can see that bar USA (benefit from exchange rate) and China (cheap goods available) we mainly trade with our EU trading partners being Germany, France and Netherlands. 

• Annual value of international trade of goods (80%) and services (20%) now exceeds $12 trillion. This reliance on other nations has forced us to maintain healthy political relations with other countries as well as benefit from a larger consumer welfare. After WW2 the free-trade idea was introduced as a means of maintaining world peace. 

Three quick-fire facts

1. 16% of the EU’s imports come from China.
2. Almost 60% of UK’s trade is with the 27 EU countries. This is an example of trade creation.
3. Trade between the UK and former colonies and commonwealth countries has decreased. This is called trade diversion.

These three quick-fire facts demonstrates changes in world trade patterns. There has been an increase in trade between trade blocs e.g. NAFTA and another factor that has lead to trade between nations which are geographically distanced is cheap transport costs. Traditional trade between colonies has decreased as we now trade between nations in a competitive way as opposed to competition between colonies. China has revolutionized trade by allowing trade with developed countries with ease at a low cost!

Globalisation

In these video I discuss the factors that contribute to globalisation e.g. transport costs, advantages and disadvantages of globalisation and I touch on the fact that globalisation is having serious environmental implications.  Please find the transcript below.

Globalisation 

Globalisation is the increasing integration of national economies.

Factors that cause globalisation

• Faster communication and increased amounts of knowledge being shared through improvements in technology
• International financial markets and free free of capital - this means that money particularly hot money and capital is able to shift between countries by the click of the money and this has encouraged borrowing and lending between countries.
• Free-market ideology and trade liberalization has meant that former communist countries such as Russia have helped the world become a much more integrated trade system.
• Over the last 50 years there has been a reduction in trade barriers encouraged by the WTO
• Trade blocs such as EU, NAFTA, ASEAN etc have formed

• Cheaper transport costs - there has been a decrease in real terms since 1980
• Availability of different currencies
• TNCs - they have helped integrate the world
• Increased knowledge and information through media
• Increased amount of demand for cultural products and firms by definition are willing to take advantage of this.

Costs and Benefits of globalisation 

Costs	Benefits
Poverty - number of African countries have seen their debt grow and poverty rise	Increased world output and wealth - specialisation, division of labour, absolute and comparative advantage
Economic shock spreads quicker	Increased consumer welfare
Externalities - pollution etc and comparative advantage means manufactured goods are usually produced in countries with low environmental standards	Government roles are minimized - free market ideology
Poor countries may have less power than TNCs giving them a chance to exploit them	Peace - less chance of war?
The gap between the richest and poorest is widened	Although it may create inequalities due to the greater output in the longer run everyone is better off.
Job losses in countries with higher costs of labour

In the 21st century none of the costs of global trading and globalisation appear to be even more worrying that the environmental degradation this can lead to. Our constant traveling and transportation of goods leads to externalities such as pollution which in turn causes acid rain, changes the salinity of waters etc. The increased number of products may reduce price but has lead to litter problems, there is not enough land to convert into landfills and even the ocean has been a victim of this - we have even named an area of the ocean which is so bad;y affected by this - the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Why should economist care?

At the end of the day the environment is a cost which costs firms and consumers even if we exclude costs such as carbon emissions. Furthermore, without a sustainable environment all that globalisation and economics works for (a perfect world where the gap between the rich and poor is minimal) is rubbish as the environment provides a foundation for economics whether it be through resources or consumers.