Question spotting for F585 Economics The Global Economy OCR A level June 2011

Does anybody have any best guesses for likely questions to come up in the summer? Thank you!

any want to give any revision help as well? i'm really stuck on what i should investiate! not long left now guys!.... before breaking up, we're discussing about the EU...any one have any interesting and useful facts?

My teachers suggest that the last question will be something along the lines of the benefits and drawbacks of lowering trade barriers, emphasising on the vulnerability of FDI.
And I wouldn't say the material is very vague at all, the overall topic is clear: Is Economic convergence worth it? And is having an open economy beneficial?
I've attached a list of possible 4 mark questions to this too.

Na nothing interesting at all, it looks like it is going to be a trick exam as it is very vague the material

what do you mean about economic convergence? we started talking about that in class too! but i never understood :/...

when you talk about trade barriers and the drawbacks...what else would there be expect from the fact that developing countries can be exploited?...and the fact that in the eu, germany is coming out stronger right now....but even then i wouldn't know anything else to say except for the fact that germany is stronger...what's wrong with that?

In the context of the EU, economic convergence is where all of the countries who are part of the Eurozone share one currency. Because of this, they must have a joint monetary policy (one interest rate)
When an country is in recession, it is normal to reduce interest rates to boost economic growth (people are less likely to keep money in the bank due to low r/i therefore, they will spend more, businesses will invest more as the cost of borrowing money from the bank is lower and the rate at which mortgages increase will be lower.) Vice versa, If a country has high economic growth then it is the norm to increase interest rates to control inflation.
If you look in your stimulus pack, you'll see in Q2 2009, Germany was experiencing economic growth and nearly all of the rest of the Eurozone was in a recession. However, as there is only one interest rate, the direction in which it goes (up or down) could not possibly satisfy every country. Furthermore, even if all countries were in a recession, some would still be deeper in recession than others, so would want lower interest rates than others. Basically, one interest rate does not suit every country.
Furthermore, if a country can't control growth through monetary policy, it must do it through fiscal measures (taxes and government spending.) For example, if an economy is in a recession and the rest of the countries that are in the Eurozone have high economic growth, then that country must cut taxes and increase government spending to get out of an recession (as the monetary policy would be set to higher interest rates.) They have to borrow money to do this, thus increasing their budget deficit and national debt. They may not have had to do this to such a large scale if they had control over their own interest rates. (as they could have merely lowered their interest rates to boost the economy.)

I haven't done too much on trade yet. The global fall in GDP had a knock on effect on global trade. Some countries, such as Ireland, GDP had become dependent on FDI. Therefore, a fall in trade caused them to go into recession. Also, countries such as the US and China often attempt to 'devalue' their currency by manipulating the exchange rate (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11711611.) to increase exports. Ireland can't really do this as they don't control the r/e of the Euro. I'm not too sure on this last paragraph though, I might be talking a bit of jibberish in some of it.

You don't understand how useful that was!!!! HAHAHA! tell me more ...not only will it benefit me! but it benefits you! teaching help you learn like a huge percent! lol ... that's what i try to do when i do maths, cause i usually get it quicker for some reason !
Are you predicted A/A*?

My teachers suggest that the last question will be something along the lines of the benefits and drawbacks of lowering trade barriers, emphasising on the vulnerability of FDI.
And I wouldn't say the material is very vague at all, the overall topic is clear: Is Economic convergence worth it? And is having an open economy beneficial?
I've attached a list of possible 4 mark questions to this too.

that is from the tutor2u toolkit

I had a suspicion it might be! My teacher sent the list to me last week. You don't have the full toolkit by any chance do you?

haha, glad I could help Sure, anything specific you need to know?
And yeah, I'm predicted an A*

na only in paper not in computer format soz

hmm..not as of yet lol! still trying to figure stuff out in my head i desperately need motivation!
.... well done! what you doing in uni?

may i ask, where did you get it?

haha, glad I could help Sure, anything specific you need to know?
And yeah, I'm predicted an A*