This year’s Budget takes place at a time of high international tension. The issue of energy security has once again shot to the top of the political agenda. The crisis in Ukraine demonstrates once again the extent to which Britain is exposed to political and economic risks beyond our control. The fact is Britain’s dependency […]
We can end the despotism of finance, at a price
Feb 25th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.After the 2008 global financial crisis and panic, the international banking system very nearly collapsed. In the days after Lehman Brothers failed, panic prevailed. ATMs were on the very brink of denying punters access to their own money. A prominent international banker advised his wife to withdraw all their funds from the banking system. To […]
Share:
Money as a social construct and public good
Jan 24th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.“Everyone, except an economist, knows what ‘money’ means, and even an economist can describe it in the course of a chapter or so…” – A.H. Quiggin Right now many of us are transfixed by a new kind of digital money that seems to escape the control of central bankers: Bitcoin and its new market challenger, Litecoin. […]
Share:
Our monetary system is a great, if wildly misunderstood, public good
Jan 14th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.Britain and Europe’s economic discourse is embarrassingly er…vulgar. Treasury and Finance ministers’ determination to paper over the role of big banks in the 2007-9 crisis, and instead use the opportunity to re-structure Europe’s welfare states, is both crass in economic terms, but also crude politics. Politicians are influenced by what I call the kitchen table […]
Share:
Mr Carney, you cannot fly to “Planet Croesus”
Nov 19th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.On the 24th October, 2013 Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, made a plea for the UK to reclaim its place “at the heart of a renewed globalisation. Such engagement would be timely” he said, “because globalisation itself is under siege.” Mr Carney called for nothing less than that regulation of […]
Share:
Labour must challenge the governor of the Bank of England
Nov 6th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.The CLASS-YouGov poll should be a confidence booster for Labour. I write ‘should be’ because Labour’s deafening silence in response to the provocative speech last week by Mark Carney, the new Governor of the Bank of England, indicates Labour’s continuing lack of confidence. This is dismaying given that the City of London is an industry […]
Share:
The (sheer) Audacity of the Chancellor’s Hope
Sep 10th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.The Chancellor’s speech today was truly audacious. And the most audacious aspect of it is the hope embedded in almost every line, no matter how tenuously connected to evidence. Hope that the tiny uptick in industrial production and manufacturing – up a fraction recently from among the lowest levels since records began – represents ‘recovery’. Hope that […]
Share:
Can Britain’s recovery be sustained?
Aug 26th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.All around there are signs of recovery. One can almost hear the sound of champagne bottles popping and fireworks crackling in the Westminster village. Indicators are improving. Commentators are reassessing the chancellor, whose reputation for economic management had plunged, causing his stock to fall amongst his Conservative colleagues. Now they can’t resist giving him a positive ‘thumbs […]
Share:
The Alice in Wongaland economy
Aug 17th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.by Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith Ann was on the BBC’s Today programme this week where she was asked to comment on the retail sales numbers. We thought we would share with our readers some of the data that underpins the “Alice in Wongaland” theory of the economy. But first that quote from the Chancellor about the need for […]
Share:
Is there going to be another crisis? Of course there is
Jul 15th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.“You have a dog, and I have a cat. We agree that they are each worth a billion dollars. You sell me the dog for a billion, and I sell you the cat for a billion. Now we are no longer pet owners, but Icelandic banks, with a billion dollars in new assets.” (From The […]
