Fracking - a technology used to release shale gas stored underground - hit the news headlines in 2011 after it caused earth tremors in Blackpool. But while France and Bulgaria have banned the controversial practice, fracking has been a huge success in the US, providing the country with a new source of domestic energy. What's needed now, argues David Elmes, is not a ban but for the industry and regulators to work together to establish safe ways to access this new source of energy.
Amongst plans to boost the economy, the British government has announced an initiative to state-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages in a move to get people onto the housing ladder. PhD candidate Ben Jacoby compares such policies with the New Labour years and states that the housing marked is now simply too big to fail.
Nobel Laureate Professor George A. Akerlof, speaking at Warwick Economics Summit 2012, challenges the view that free markets are invariably right and discusses the flaws of the market that caused the Great Recession.
The subject of the fifth annual Warwick RIPE debate was the intellectual challenge brought about by the Euro crisis. In this article, Dr Ben Richardson introduces presentations by Professor Brigitte Young (University of Muenster), Professor Magnus Ryner (Oxford Brookes University) and Dr Ben Clift (University of Warwick), all of which can also be listened to as audio podcasts below.
How could economists get it so wrong in the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis? How successful was quantitative easing and where is all that elusive growth going to come from? Lord Robert Skidelsky gave his own enlightening view in the second of his two lectures at Warwick.
From a history degree at Warwick, where he edited the university newspaper, to interviewing controversial figures as the BBC's media correspondent, Torin Douglas has had a varied and dynamic career so far. At a recent WBS Working Capital event he explained how his career has followed the ups and downs of the media business and gave his golden rules for business communication.
Would the world be a better place if sexually cautious people went out and got more partners? Apply economic logic to the question and you may get a result that deviates far from common sense says Professor Steven E. Landsburg at the recent Warwick Economic Summit 2012. It's all down to the costs and benefits.
When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi took over as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009 he found not only over-exposure to the capital markets but corruption on a private-jet scale. At the Warwick Economics Summit 2012 he explained how he embarked on an anti-corruption campaign to make a paradigm shift in the sector and the country's economy as a whole.
Launched in 2002, the Warwick Economics Summit has grown to become the largest student-run academic conference in the UK, attracting distinguished speakers from across the globe. Here, Coordinators Stela Bonifacic and Winston Yap provide an overview of this year's event, which was attended by students from over 50 top universities and included a Nobel Laureate amongst its speakers.
Fair Trade goods have been part of the public consciousness now for at least two decades, and their popularity with consumers shows no sign of slowing down - even in a recession. As Fair Trade Fortnight (Feb 27th-Mar 11) gets underway Warwick alumnus, Dr Andrew Walton, asks an important question: What, if anything, is the exact value of Fair Trade?
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THE CHALLENGE OF FRACKING
THE BRITISH HOUSING MARKET: TOO BIG TO FAIL?
PHISHING FOR PHOOLS
TROUBLE IN THE EUROZONE: WHOSE CRISIS?
PROBLEMS OF MONETARY POLICY: THEORY AND EVIDENCE
FORTY YEARS OF REPORTING BUSINESS
MORE SEX IS SAFER SEX AND OTHER SURPRISES
CLEANING UP CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN BANKS
WARWICK ECONOMICS SUMMIT 2012
THE VALUE OF FAIR TRADE