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 […]
Thatcher: should we pay out all that money for Trident?
Dec 9th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.There is a fascinating review by David Runciman in the LRB of Charles Moore’s: Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography, Volume ll Everything She Wants. In it Runciman recites the tale of Mrs T, the Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s support for nuclear disarmament, and President Reagan’s sudden conversion (in 1986) to nuclear disarmament. It turns out that […]
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On brilliant, neglected women economists
Nov 15th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.This week I was invited on to Woman’s Hour to talk about outstanding women in economics that have never properly been recognized and acclaimed for their contributions. The context is the Virago/New Statesman women’s prize for new, young writing on politics and economics. The prize was launched in late October to address the underrepresentation of women in […]
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Is capitalism “mutating” into an infotech utopia?
Nov 5th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.I was privileged to be invited by the St. Paul’s Institute to discuss (on the 3 November) the thesis in Paul Mason’s recent book Post Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future with a keynote speech from the author. Mason’s book is both a riveting and intellectually exhilarating read. It challenged me at a range of […]
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Meacher was scholarly, considerate and magnificently right on the big issues
Oct 24th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.Michael Meacher has died as he lived, seldom attracting any fuss or attention, and seldom burdening his friends and comrades. That makes me sad, as he was a man deserving of attention – and not just as he was dying. He was marginalised for most of his political life, often by the same people that will […]
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Escaping “Stockholm syndrom – Stop fessing up to errors Labour didn’t make
Oct 4th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.Mr Osborne’s most striking political achievement, with the connivance of the economics profession and media, is to reframe the debate about the most severe crisis in living memory away from finance and towards the welfare state – identified as causal of the crisis. In reframing the debate he has succeeded in ‘capturing’ some of his […]
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Ending ‘life support’ for western economic model underlies China crisis
Sep 2nd, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.After two days of trouble and strife in global stock markets, the Federal Reserve’s New York President William Dudley said in remarks to reporters that a September interest rate hike seemed “less compelling” now than in recent weeks. These two words alone calmed global financial markets, and pushed up the price of oil. So everything’s […]
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Labour’s panicky establishment referencing the wrong period in history
Aug 24th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.“This young country will be proud of its identity and its place in the world, not living in its history, but grasping the opportunities of its future.” Tony Blair: Leader’s speech, Brighton, 1995. Tony Blair and those associated with Blairism embraced globalisation and studiously ignored Labour Party history – except to denounce and disown “Old Labour”. […]
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Why the Euro is the gold standard writ large…
Aug 23rd, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.The euro not only replicated key elements of the gold standard – but went much further: European currencies were simply abolished. States lost control over both their currency and their central bank. Parallels with the operation of the gold standard explain why, like the gold standard, the euro will fail. The euro system denies monetary […]
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What should new Greek finance minister do next?
Jul 7th, 2015 by Ann Pettifor.The Greek people have led, so that their leaders can now follow. They have backed (with a landslide vote for “No!”) their brave and principled, if inexperienced and diplomatically inept, new government. Now they need to turn their attention to rebuilding their economy. The first step must be to begin creating a new (and hopefully […]
