GCSE and A level Economics students are no strangers to the economic analysis produced by David Smith, Economics Editor of The Sunday Times. Reading David’s weekly analysis is firmly embedded into the Economics curriculum.
On 17 December, David published his annual Christmas quiz and promised the winner ‘a visit and a talk’. The deadline for entries was 3 January. For homework, all Economics students were tasked with answering the questions and emailing them to David.
Fast-forward to David’s most recent Sunday Times article where he announced the winner: ‘The prize this year goes to some of my younger readers. I encouraged students to enter and, spurred on by their enthusiastic economics teacher, Mr Clarke, many did from Emmanuel College, Gateshead, as well as one or two other schools. There was no copying, but most of Emmanuel’s large entry got the answers right. So, as a prize, I now owe the school a visit and a talk, which we shall arrange. Many congratulations to them.’
We look forward to hosting David in due course.
Try the quiz yourself.
How many answers do you know?
- There have been six chancellors of the exchequer since mid-2019. Who are they?
- One of them, Kwarteng, was in post for a very short time, but his was not the record for the shortest stint in the modern era. Who had that unenviable record?
- Including the current one, how many former chancellors have become prime minister since the Second World War, and what are their names?
- The Kwarteng September mini-budget sent the pound down to an all-time low against the dollar. Was that low (a) $1 (b) $1.03 (c) $1.06 (d) $1.09?
- Kwarteng and Liz Truss were contributors to a book of free market economic ideas ten years ago. What was it?
- The Bank has raised rates more times this year than in any year since 1988. How many times has it done so?
- Inflation rose to more than 11 per cent. Was this the highest for (a) 20 years (b) 30 years (c) 40 years?
- Which former chairman of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, shared the Nobel prize in economics?
- The Queen sadly died in September after 70 years on the throne. How much, according to Nationwide Building Society, did house prices rise during her reign? (a) House prices this year are four times their 1952 level; (b) they are 14 times that level; (c) 144 times what they were in 1952.
- What does the acronym TANSTAAFL stand for? It is sometimes used in economics.
Click here to find out the answers.
