Economic growth data does not show how such growth was achieved. Was it based on income growth and consumption spending levels or was it based on borrowings to extend the income levels? The question is vital for deciding which economic tools work best for correcting imbalances. The main...

Individual households save out of income by postponing consumption. Such savings are used not only by companies to expand production or by some individual households to increase consumption through borrowings: the economic use of savings. For instance in the U.S. in 2005 and 2006 65.5% of the...

An Income Gap Theory and it effects on Unemployment and Economic Growth By Drs Kees De Koning Abstract An income gap is often described as the difference in incomes between the rich and poor. This is a relative gap. In economies a different income gap can occur which can be defined as the...

In 1946 the economist Arthur Burns defined a business cycle as a period of expansion occurring about the same time in many economic activities, followed by similar general recessions, contractions and revivals, which merge into the expansion phase of the next cycle. Cycles may take from one year...

Abstract Debt, equity and income: limits to the freedom of choice in an economy. Three concepts have been introduced in this paper, which help explain the economic developments in the U.S. and the U.K. over the last sixteen years; they are the “income gap”, the “equity gap” and the...

Financial sector companies are different from those in the real sector. In the real sector the price for consumer goods and services is a price reflecting all costs which have been made to produce the output. Profits reflect the difference between the sales price and the costs base. The...

Savings are allocated over the acquisition of assets like homes, shares and bonds and government debt paper. For a home acquisition an individual household uses own equity provided by the buyer and outside equity provided by banks. Such outside equity can help to increase the volume of new...

The U.S. housing market crash in 2007-2008 was not caused overnight by an over-supply of new homes that could not be sold. It was caused by the new money flows into mortgages ever since 1998. What changed in 1998 was that mortgage funds were not only used for building new homes at a price in...

Cars and also equipment used in production processes depreciate in value through their use. Other assets like homes, share and bonds do not depreciate in the same manner. The latter asset values go up and down not as a consequence of the remaining life period, but because of their links with...

Savings can be used in two different applications. Companies will nearly always use savings –equity, loans and bonds- to help produce and increase output and increase employment levels –the economic use of savings-. Individual households will take up mortgages. However the collective...