The following is a letter by Professor John Weeks and Ann Pettifor, published today, 15th March 2016 in The Guardian. Andrew Harrop’s article on John McDonnell’s public borrowing for investment points out its improvement on the chancellor’s deficit obsession (John McDonnell’s new fiscal rule is strong, but it’s no election winner, The Guardian, 11 March). […]
Posts under ‘Macroeconomics’
John McDonnell’s very political economics
Mar 15th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.What have they been putting in John McDonnell’s coffee? According to some, John’s embrace of fiscal responsibility, tight spending, and deficit reduction is a surrender to “the capitalist parasites“. And proving you cannot please some people no matter what you say, there have been criticisms from the right of the party arguing that his economics […]
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Labour right-wing still in the austerity dead end
Mar 15th, 2016 by Michael Burke.Rachel Reeves, a former Labour shadow secretary for work and pensions, has produced a short note for Progress which has been hailed in the right wing media, and by the Labour right, as ‘an alternative Budget’. The New Statesman was perhaps the most excitable, describing Reeves as the shadow chancellor in waiting. All of this […]
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Labour, John McDonnell and the New Economics
Mar 13th, 2016 by David Pavett.Once the surprise and the shock of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader had sunk in, many (including me) became impatient for policy initiatives and membership involvement in policy formation to come to the fore. Clearly cutting through media hostility is a major task but I find it difficult to see that more could not […]
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World finance ministers complacent at threat of a synchronised downturn
Mar 11th, 2016 by Ann Pettifor.“For the proposition that supply creates its own demand, I shall substitute the proposition that expenditure creates its own income” (JM Keynes Collected Writings, Volume XXIX, p81) G20 Finance Ministers met in Huangzhou, China recently and refused appeals from both the IMF and the OECD for “urgent collective policy action” that focussed “fiscal policies on investment-led […]
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The crisis remains an investment crisis
Mar 8th, 2016 by Michael Burke.Prior to the recent G20 meeting leading international economic bodies such as the IMF and the OECD made tentative calls for increased investment, although this was often confused with increased spending. This is a belated or partial recognition of the real source of the crisis in the advanced industrialised countries. In terms of actual changes […]
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The growth of movements for real change have been a long time coming
Mar 7th, 2016 by Steve Turner.Last week Tony Blair professed bafflement at the rise – on both sides of the Atlantic – of popular movements by people who in Blair’s view choose to “rattle the cage”. I think this is a mischaracterisation. Those who have been energised into supporting Sanders, Corbyn and movements such as Podemos and Syriza want to […]
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How we are punished for not responding to George’s not-so marvellous medicine
Mar 6th, 2016 by Sian Errington.In February, the Guardian revealed that from a £300 million ‘relief fund’ to help local councils struggling with the scale of funding cuts demanded of them 83% of the funds will go to Conservative run councils. The five most deprived local authorities in the country – Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Manchester, Knowsley and Hull – are also […]
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Numb and number: where the Big Short falls short
Mar 2nd, 2016 by Ann Pettifor.As this goes to press, global capital markets appear to be stabilizing after another period of intense, and scary stock market volatility. This set the context for the arrival in Britain of Adam McKay’s The Big Short – a film about the American sub-prime mortgage meltdown, based on the book by Michael Lewis. It could […]
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Is Labour ready for another economic crisis?
Mar 2nd, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Ellie Mae O’Hagan writes that the Tories are politically prepared for another economic crisis, should one hit. Looking at the lack of profitable opportunities for capital presently, the ongoing investment strike, stock markets that went up and then came down, and the inflating credit bubble you’d be daft to rule one out with certainty over […]
