Ann Pettifor

International Financial Architecture

The future of money – for El Pais

This note was published by Spain’s El Pais on 4 May, 2020 Central banks have adopted extraordinary, historically unprecedented measures to prevent this pandemic collapsing the globalised financial system. Trillions of dollars, euros and yen have been created ‘out of thin air’. As a result there is a fear of inflation – the erosion of […]

The future of money – for El Pais Read More »

Here’s a three-step plan to take back control

This essay appeared in The Correspondent  on 17th April, 2020. The health of our domestic economies and the planet is tied to market forces that are largely invisible and little understood. As Covid-19 shakes the foundations of the world economy, rather than hope to restore it, let’s work to replace it. I was born and

Here’s a three-step plan to take back control Read More »

Capital subordinated to the interests of labour (society)

We are living through terrifying times. The greatest threat to humanity stems not just from a virulent superbug, but as scary –  the response to it. In Britain, as in the US, policy action is dictated by an ultra-nationalist government, which while pretending to “take back control” remains committed to a free-for-all for the owners

Capital subordinated to the interests of labour (society) Read More »

The market for dystopia – my choice of a book for our time.

My review of Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation appeared in Nature magazine on 13 December, 2019. From the introduction to the editor’s choice of seven books: “From planetary change to geopolitical recalibrations, 2019 has been convulsive. The year saw millions worldwide protesting against governmental inaction on the cascading crises in the global environment. Anxiety over

The market for dystopia – my choice of a book for our time. Read More »

System change, not climate change.

This article is a slightly edited excerpt form Ann Pettifor’s forthcoming book ‘The Case for the Green New Deal‘ (Verso, 2019). We have been warned by climate scientists that to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate breakdown and global heating, then humanity collectively has (starting from 1870) a ‘carbon budget’ of about 3,200 billion

System change, not climate change. Read More »

The Latent Unused Power of Citizens & The Production of Public Collateral

The following is a very long, but I hope worthwhile read…published by the Trans National Institute’s stunningly well produced Report State of Power, 2019: Finance –   in January, 2019, and edited by Nick Buxton. Until we fully grasp the importance of public debt to the finance sector, immensely wealthy, globalised corporations will continue to parasitically

The Latent Unused Power of Citizens & The Production of Public Collateral Read More »

Of bollygarchs, gombeens & spivs: welcome to the world of financial corruption

These reviews of books on financial corruption appeared in the Times Literary Supplement on 13 November, 2018. Ten years ago, just after the collapse of Lehman’s and as the Great Financial Crisis intensified, I complained in the Guardian about the globally coordinated 0.5% cut in interest rates by central bankers. It was too little too

Of bollygarchs, gombeens & spivs: welcome to the world of financial corruption Read More »

Take Back Control of the Palace

In this piece, written for International Politics and Society, I argue that  the global investigation into the “Paradise Papers’ has created an opportune moment for wider debate about how the increasingly corrupt and out-of-control global financial system can be tamed. It is time, I argued, that tax-paying citizens recognised their power to create change, and to manage

Take Back Control of the Palace Read More »

ABC daily report – ‘Let them default’

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 >

ABC daily report – ‘Let them default’ Read More »

The age of liberal finance over. The left’s Plan B?

By Ann Pettifor. An edited version of this piece was published on Left Foot Forward, 14 September, 2011. This original, longer version posted 19 September, 2011.  The game is up. The 2007-9 private banking crisis that started with the unpayable debts of the US sub-prime sector, was never over. The crisis has now moved on

The age of liberal finance over. The left’s Plan B? Read More »