Ann Pettifor

Delusional economists

Ann Pettifor: 23rd January, 2009, 13.00PM The election of a wise, astute and dignified man as US President; the sight of a happy loving couple, with a pair of well-behaved children taking over the reins of the White House; the power and dignity of Aretha Franklin’s voice, her glorious hat; the radiant faces of Americans […]

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The crisis in Ireland

11th January, 2009. Dashed across to Dublin this week-end, to address the Irish Green Party Conference, and met up with Richard Douthwaite of FEASTA – the excellent Irish think tank.  I was shocked by what is happening to our neighbours.   One newspaper headline declared yesterday that in this country of just 5 million people, 5,000

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‘Muddling through’ – bishops, finance & the establishment

Ann Pettifor: 9th January, 2009, 17.00PM Simon Jenkins writes for the UK Guardian,  and has a splenetic piece in the paper today. Its an attack on the economics profession which “has collapsed in ignominy and if there were any justice the profession would be sacked en masse”.  Could not agree more.  But he also has

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Why bubbles burst

Ann Pettifor: 8th January, 2009, 23.45PM With grateful acknowledgements to both the Financial Times and Thomson Datastream, am delighted to reproduce this very important graph of interest rates – UK, US and EU over the past decade. They clearly show how high real official (i.e. base) rates were before the 2001 dot.com crash and the

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And this year?

Ann Pettifor: 4th January, 2009, 11.00AM First of all apologies for the long break. Like many others, I have been re-charging batteries, spending time with friends and loved ones, sleeping a great deal and briskly walking the wild, windswept and often freezing Suffolk coast. Highlights? Christmas day walk and picnic with my beloved on a

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Ecuador first major country to default on its debt obligations

From the Economist Intelligence Unit: Posted on Debtonation December 16th Ecuador’s government will withhold an interest payment on its foreign bonds due on December 15th, making it the first major country to default on its debt obligations since the current global financial crisis began-indeed the first sovereign to do so since Argentina’s huge default of

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Madoff and Ponzi Finance

16th December, 2008 The unravelling of the Bernard Madoff Hedge Fund –  a Ponzi scheme, it seems, modelled on the scam of Charles Ponzi (pictured) – was described by Nicola Horlick of Bramdean Alternative Investment Fund as ‘the biggest financial fraud in the history of markets’. This reminds me of the witty comment of a

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