My contribution to the 15th International Karl Polanyi Conference “The Role of the State in the post-COVID 21st Century” is organized in collaboration with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University.
Can Society Challenge & Transform Today’s Global Capital Markets? Read More »
“The economic mechanism of Europe is jammed.” – J M Keynes [1] The Dutch finance minister Wopka Hoekstra is somewhat brazen. Like his German counterpart, he caused consternation across the Union by rejecting a ‘Coronabond’ – a scheme for raising finance for EU countries tackling the coronavirus crisis; a scheme that would have lowered the
Readers of this blog may know that Patrick Allen, founder of the Progressive Economy Forum (PEF) invited me to become a member of its distinguished Council in July this year. Other members include Professors John Weeks, Joseph Stiglitz, Stephany Griffiths-Jones, Robert Skidelsky, Daniela Gabor, Danny Darling, Ha Joon Chang and Doctors Johnna Montgomery, Geoff Tily,
How governments finance their spending (and its not from taxation). Read More »
Introduction “Deficit financing” in contemporary economics is controversial – largely because of flawed economic approaches to a sovereign nation’s public finances. The first is the microeconomic approach that treats government budget deficits in much the same way as household deficits. In other words, the assumption that like a household, a government budget deficit is the consequence
‘Deficit Financing’ or Deficit-Reduction Financing? Read More »
The following article appeared in the Church Times on 20 September, 2018 “The Government is unprepared for a hard Brexit, says Ann Pettifor. The financial impact could be devastating” The Brexit referendum provided conclusive evidence that economics is inherently political. There was nothing scientific about any of the campaign promises or economic forecasts. Instead,
The Economist had a piece on Britain’s tax base in its 25th January edition. It begins with a reference to Denis Healey’s speech to the 1973 Labour conference, in which he promised that tax increases would be met with “howls of anguish” from everyone, not just the rich. As it happens, I have been reviewing the
This opinion piece appeared in the Observer on 17th December, 2017. While the Daily Mail, with Pavlovian regularity, persists in ringing the “Marxist” alarm bell, the Financial Times is a little more measured. “Labour has a fair wind” with business leaders the paper argued recently “with many terrified of a hard Brexit”. At Britain’s biggest
Why Business Could Prosper Under A Corbyn Government Read More »
* Hoopla: “speech or writing intended to mislead or to obscure an issue.” October has been an eventful month. In Britain, politics is back in fashion. After years of Blairite vacuity, the media have juicy political red meat to plunge their teeth into. The new Labour leader’s announcement that he would not press the nuclear
Fiscal Charter Hoopla* obscured big concessions to the City Read More »
This week I appeared on Newsnight with Gillian Tett of the FT and Louise Cooper of BGC Partners. We discussed our graphs of 2011 (see mine below) and wider questions around the global financial crisis this year – and how ecnomists and policy makers need to respond. Watch the show on iPlayer for the next
Newsnight – economists discuss the ‘graphs of 2011’ Read More »
The Autumn Statement reveals but one thing: the Chancellor and his advisers are both ill-advised and dangerously ill-prepared for the forthcoming prolonged Depression. (And if you think I exaggerate, let me remind you that 20 years after the Japanese debt bubble burst, Tokyo house prices are still falling, and the stock market is worth 60% less
It’s not the public, but the private finance sector, stupid. Read More »
