economy | Westminster World

Feb102023 by Mihir ChittarNo Comments

WTF is a Recession? And are we in one?

Business, economy, Explainer, Explainers, Explainers

(Image credits: Unsplash) I wanted to explain what a recession is. Because you will be hearing this word a lot lately and depending on how bad it gets, you are likely to feel its effects. So what exactly is a recession? Recession is a term used to describe a slowdown in a country's economic activity. This can be seen as a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), increased unemployment, and decreased industrial production, trade, and investment. A recession is typically considered to be a more severe form of economic slowdown, lasting longer than a simple dip in the business cycle. Now, I know I didn’t explain anything and might have made it sound more complicated. So let me explain it in the form of a story. Let's take an example of a small town called

Dec122022 by Francesco FioriNo Comments

Drivers complaint: ULEZ expansion will affect us badly.

Bus, economy, Environment, London, London Mayor, News, TFL, Transport, Tube, UK news, UK Political parties

Credit: David Hawgood Since 2019 ULEZ has been a program that is helping London in reduce Car Pollution. But how far can this program push people to change? Car pollution has always been a big problem for prominent cities and their citizen. In 2019 the UK Government decided to start a program for the city's centre named ULEZ. Whoever would transit for central London has to pay around £12 a day to transit. Those who do not pay the daily tax could get a fine of about £160. As reported on the government website, central London has raised £174k yearly from this tax, which is used to help London transport. By August 2023 ULEZ Zone will be expanded in all of Greater London. 80% of the consultation is against the ULEZ Zone and members of the movement No ULEZ is ready to

Oct242022 by Katie Bird and Kedar PatilNo Comments

“Give me money!”: Students react to the cost-of-living crisis

Adults, Breaking News, economy, Explainers, Health, Housing, London, News, UK news

The cost-of-living crisis began in 2021 and is still ongoing. Prices in the United Kingdom have been increasing faster than the average household income can sustain. Students across the country have been particularly impacted by the fluctuating rent prices. Over the last year, finding affordable accommodation in the city has become a challenge for Londoners. It is a situation that has been especially stressful for students who might struggle financially. According to the Office for National Statistics, private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to August 2022, up from 3.3% in the 12 months to July 2022. Students interviewed by Westminster World explained that the public funding they received to support themselves throughout their stud...

Oct242022 by Editor2No Comments

“This crisis is scaring me” – The rise of the British Bamboccioni

Adults, Breaking News, economy, Explainers, Housing, trends, UK news

Young British adults are leaving home later than ever. 28% of British households are now multigenerational according to the ONS, diverging from our Northern European neighbours, toward a more Italian arrangement. ‘Bamboccioni’ is an Italian colloquial term that best translates to 'big baby'. This has become a term used to describe Italy’s elevated rate of adults still living at home due to the country's economic stagnation. More than 65% of Italians aged 18 to 34 live with their parents. Europeans may be mocked, however ritual has been commonplace through history in a number of cultures. Family values are held in particularly high esteem in Eastern cultures, for example, and it is commonly expected that children care for their parents in older age as their parents cared for them

What is RBI central bank digital currency and why is India launching it?

Business, economy, Education, Explainers, International, Worldnews

Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the country on February 1, 2022. In her budget presentation, she announced the launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2022–23 as a means to boost India’s economic growth. If you can’t beat them, copy them. This partially elucidates why central banks in nine countries have introduced their own digital currencies. Recently, in the Union Budget for 2022-23, India draws itself closer towards adopting cryptocurrencies after years of wavering on its stance, as the country seeks to keep up with the global move towards the digital assets. Besides announcing a flat 30 per cent tax on profits from all virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Indian Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman talked about the virtual d

Explained: India and its unemployment crisis

Breaking News, Covid-19, economy, Explainers, International, Student, Worldnews, youth

Since the mid-2000s, India’s youth have referred to themselves as the “Nowhere Generation” - the ones who are stuck between the need to work for sustenance and the lack of options to help them. It has been over two decades since this term was coined but the situation seems to get worse with every year with rising “berozgari” or unemployment. Picture Credit: Australia India Institute On the 1st of February, India’s Finance Minister announced the budget for 2022 and promised to create six million jobs over the next five years. However, the “Nowhere Generation” doesn't seem to have much faith in this statement as pulling this off will not be an easy feat. In the past few years, in spite of being Asia’s third-largest economy, the country’s unemployment rate exceeded most of the emer

Feb142022 by Sarlota, subedited by SakshiNo Comments

How is clothes waste changing Chile’s desert into a fast fashion graveyard

Breaking News, Climate, clothes, economy, Environment, Explainers, Explainers

Fast fashion, producing more products at a lower price, has grown up a lot lately. It is generally known that it's a problem for our planet, however, why exactly? This explainer reveals the life cycle of fast fashion clothes and focuses on why Chile’s nature has to “pay” for its waste. Picture by: Pixabay Life cycle of fast fashion clothes Created by: Sarlota Touzimska Why Chile? Chile has for long been a centre for wasted clothes manufactured mostly in China. It is the biggest second-hand clothes importer in South America. “Unfortunately, we have transformed our city into the world’s garbage dump”, stated Mayor of Alto Hospico, Patricio Ferreira.The original idea was to help the economy , but things went wrong. As only a small part of the clothes is sold, the rest travels

Is your makeup bag cruelty-free?

Animal Rights, Animals, Blogs, Breaking News, Business, Culture, Data Journalism, economy, Explainers, Fashion, News, shopping, What's Hot, Women, Worldnews

Image by Kloudia Sakowski The EU prohibited the sale of animal tested cosmetic products and ingredients on 11 March 2013 following its ban on animal tested cosmetics just four years earlier. We explored if these regulations are truly practised in the UK. Brands marked with a green star are cruelty-free. Our own research. Walking down the aisles at Boots, you would assume the cosmetics brands you see are vegan and cruelty-free because of this law. Yet upon inspection, we found that the UK has plenty of makeup brands that practice neither. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayyXLmUwkuk Reporter Kloudia Sakowski compares makeup brands and conducts an interview with a Lush employee. Cruelty-free products are products created without the use of animal testing while vegan products

Mar82021 by Emily LatimerNo Comments

What is the Gender Pay Gap and how is COVID-19 affecting it?

Breaking News, Charity, Covid-19, economy, Explainer, Explainers, Explainers, Law, London, Women

With International Women's day today and Government reporting on The Gender Pay Gap recently set back another six months, we take a closer look at the detrimental effect COVID-19 could be having on it. The past year has hit women hard, with warnings that COVID-19 could set women’s economic progress back half a century, from international institutions including the UN and the World Economic Forum. Charities such as The Fawcett Society believe the gender pay gap is increasing because women are more likely than men to lose work or be burdened with childcare in the crisis. A third of working mothers reported having lost work or hours due to a lack of childcare during the pandemic. And this rose to 44% when it came to Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) mothers. Caroline N

Mar82021 by Editor2No Comments

“The Great Reset” Explained

Business, Climate, economy, Environment, Explainers

What is the "Reset" all about? The world economy has suffered extreme blows by the pandemic, a proposed plan to reset may change everything. But is it for the best? “You will have nothing, and you’ll be happy.” This quote has been thrown around as if it is at the core of the World Economic Forum’s pitch for “The Great Reset”. Is that really what is at the core of the reset? Will we hit a button that evens everyone out so we all start from zero? Not exactly. “The Great Reset” is actually reseting the way we think about things. Capitalism seems like the enemy to many, but with the proposed shift, capitalism may be able to benefit the people it has ousted in the past. This reset would aim to fix the many problems facing us as a society today: econo