Ecomomic models

Thanks to the free day of training that forces every parent to lose a days productive work three times a year ( or is it four ? ) - in-service training days. Man in a Shed had to wonder of to the science museum armed with offspring, when the rest of the world was watching George Osborne monstering Labour's economic record.

Of course the problem is that the things I'm interested in (which don't move and have notes attached) are "boring", so it takes a fair bit of parental will to see anything that isn't from the disneyfication end of the museum ( not that that is bad - in fact its great ).

But I came across the Phillips Economic computer - an analogue computer that models the economy.

The computer works by pumping and restricting the flow of fluid to model the economy, Note the National income below is empty...It got me to wondering about the models used by our governing types for our economy. As it happens the Bank of England publish theirs ( or at least a version of it ) here - so no FOI request needed there then. Its a shame they don't publish a spread sheet ( though I understand the BoE takes a dim view of banks that make certain uses of spreadsheets - so perhaps they have but are too embarrassed to let on.

Also in the running is this Virtual Economy web tool from Biz/Ed, which I'll have to play with later, after getting some work done. There is a economic death spiral on you know ....