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On The Case

The On The Case feature allows you to further develop a variety of skills that you'll need to master Economics and Business Studies. You'll be applying the theory you have learnt to real world events, as published by FT.com, to sharpen those evaluative and analytical skills. To help you, we have produced a set of interactive worksheets that use a variety of different questioning techniques.

Simply select the case study you're interested in, read the article and then try the worksheets. Don't forget to also have a look at the links to other Biz/ed resources for each case study. For some further details about On the Case have a look at the background information.

• US unemployment claims fall (19 Jan 2001)
  Claims on unemployment insurance fell sharply recently and new starts on home construction rose slightly last month, government figures showed. The reports added to recent evidence that though US growth is slowing significantly, the economy is far from crisis…

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• Record result for Nestlé as full-year profits rise 22% (23 Feb 2001)
  Nestlé, the world's biggest consumer food company, reported a 22 per cent rise in full-year earnings and said real internal sales growth had surpassed the company's long-running target of 4 per cent.

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• ECB to hold steady on interest rate (01 Mar 2001)
  The European Central Bank defied expectations in financial markets on 1st March, 2001, saying it was not thinking of cutting interest rates in spite of lower inflation and evidence of slower European economic growth.

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• Shell in $2.2bn bid for Barrett (07 Mar 2001)
  Royal Dutch/Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, on 07 March, 2001 launched its third bid in 10 months with a $2.2bn offer for Barrett Resources Corporation, a US independent natural gas exploration and production company.

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• Bush says Kyoto climate treaty would harm the US (02 Apr 2001)
  President George W. Bush justified his opposition to an international global warming treaty by saying it would harm the US economy and its workers.

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• Tories vow to rein in regulators and cut business taxes (21 May 2001)
  Promises to scrap a range of corporate taxes and curb the power of regulators form the backbone of the Conservative attempt to win the support of the business community.

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• Lex: Renault/Nissan (22 May 2001)
  Nissan and Renault are increasingly two sides of one coin. As the Japanese carmaker reported sparkling results, Renault, which owns 36.8 per cent of it, slipped out a profits warning. The broad pattern was already expected - a resurgent Nissan partly offsetting a Renault slowdown - but those trends now look more pronounced. For both groups, however, new models are key.

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• AstraZeneca invests Pounds 69m in China plant (19 Apr 2001)
  AstraZeneca has inaugurated a Dollars 100m (Pounds 69m) manufacturing plant in China, one of the biggest pharmaceuticals investments in the country.

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• Attacks depress London housing market (25 Sep 2001)
  Activity in the London housing market has dropped dramatically since the attacks on the US two weeks ago. Estate agents say few new buyers are registering and existing buyers are not viewing properties.

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• Keynes revisited (09 Oct 2001)
  This week, with little ceremony, President George W. Bush quietly brought to a close more than a decade of US economic policy orthodoxy. By signalling his support for lower taxes and higher public spending in the next year that could reach as high as $130bn (£88bn) - 1.3 per cent of gross domestic product - he threw the US administration's weight behind the proposition that a temporary deficiency in aggregate demand should be met by a shift in government finances from surplus to deficit.

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