Ann Pettifor

Ann Pettifor

Political economist, author and public speaker

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Government Borrowing

My verdict on Ed Balls’ conference speech – apologies are not enough

/ Anglo-American Financial Crisis, Bank Bail-outs, Bankers in Government, Banking Crisis, British Banking, Credit, Debt, Economic Orthodoxy, Finance Ministers, Financial Crisis, Government Borrowing, Neo-liberal Economics, Public Spending, UK Financial Crisis

Published in the Guardian Cif alongside responses from Jonathon Freedland and Sheila Lawlor: Ed Balls said sorry for Labour’s record on ultra-light-touch financial regulation, and that must be acknowledged. But apologies are just not enough. He and Ed Miliband must stop attacking his electoral base, “hardworking families”, many of whom are trades unionists. As Balls …

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ABC daily report – ‘Let them default’

/ Bank Bail-outs, Bankers in Government, Banking Crisis, Central Banks, Consumer Debt, Credit, Credit Crunch, Debt, Democracy, Economic Orthodoxy, Finance Ministers, Financial Crisis, Government Borrowing, Interest Rates, International Financial Architecture, International Financial System

While I was in Australia I recorded this interview with ABC’s daily show. This went out on 15th September. Watch it above or on ABC’s website here >

Financing the Green Transition – why we can afford it

/ Bank Bail-outs, Central Banks, Climate Change, Credit, Credit Creation, Ecosystem, Environment, Financial Crisis, Government Borrowing, Green New Deal

Last month I gave a ‘Green Talk‘ in Bristol, organised by Climate Works. It was wonderful to be, first of all at such a professionally and well organised event (congrats to Mark Letcher and his team). It was also fantastic to be amongst such an interesting array of speakers including John Gapper ‘the secret gardener’ …

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How Ed Balls was trapped…..

/ Economic Orthodoxy, Finance Ministers, Fiscal Conservatives, Fiscal Deficit, Government Borrowing, UK Financial Crisis

Have just been told that my post on the Left Foot Forward on Ed Balls’s speech  crashed the site “under weight of people wanting to read it”…so here it is for those of you that may have missed it…. David Cameron was delighted when the formidable Ed Balls walked straight into his framing of the …

How Ed Balls was trapped….. Read More »

Why I did not sign the Observer letter for ‘Plan B’

/ Anglo-American Financial Crisis, Economic Consequences of Mr Osbourne, Fiscal Deficit, Government Borrowing, Taxation, UK Financial Crisis

I thought long and hard before refusing to sign the letter calling for a Plan B. Not because I do not think it is urgently required. But because the letter called for “clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion, as well as by raising taxes on those best able to pay.” It goes without saying, …

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Coming soon: another global financial crash? Capital mobility and the commodity mania

/ Anglo-American Financial Crisis, Banking Crisis, Capital Flows, Central Banks, Credit Crunch, Debt, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, Globalisation, Government Borrowing, International Financial Architecture, International Financial System, Money, UK Financial Crisis, US Financial Crisis, World Bank

Tin produced at a Glencore plant in Vinto, Bolivia “Experience shows that when policies falter in managing capital flows, there is no limit to the damage that international finance can inflict on an economy.” Yilmaz Akyüz, “Capital Flows to Developing Countries in a Historical Perspective: Will the current Boom End with a Bust?” Today, as …

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The FT: Governments must learn to love borrowing again.

/ Fiscal Deficit, Government Borrowing, Public Finance, Public Spending, Uncategorized

8 December, 2019 This is a remarkable editorial from the Financial Times. Reproduced below. https://www.ft.com/content/04d3614e-078a-11ea-a984-fbbacad9e7dd The global slowdown is not making the politics of macroeconomic policymaking any easier. While doves insist that softening growth requires more muscular support for aggregate demand, hawks legitimately point to the structural sources of the slowdown. This week brought more …

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Bankers tighten their grip

/ Bankers in Government, British Banking, British Chancellor, Democracy, Government Borrowing, Treasury, Uncategorized

13 May, 2010 With a backdrop of bankers looting the EU’s Treasuries (via a bailout that rivals George Bush’s TARP) let us consider one of the most significant Dem-Con appointments (and a non-appointment) to the British cabinet. That of someone who until now was invisible: David Laws the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury. His …

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Why the EU’s leaked document has got me in a rage

/ Credit Crunch, ECB, Euroland, Financial Crisis, Government Borrowing, Greece, Treasury, UK Financial Crisis

By Ann Pettifor – Posted March 16th on Labour List Together with the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. George Papandreou, I am going to give evidence to the EU’s Special Committee on the Financial Crisis in Brussels this Thursday, March 18th. So today’s leaked report from the EU, arguing that Labour’s plans for cuts to …

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