Last year on the 13 December 2011 Newsnight asked a group of economists to identify the most important chart of the year. I chose this one, which had appeared in the first paragraph of the British government’s Budget Report of 23 March 2011. It shows, as you can see, the extraordinary high levels of UK private debt – but […]
A budget that ignores reality: ideological and macro-economically hollow
Mar 22nd, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.Since 2009 the economy has struggled to recover from the mire of a slump caused by the banking sector. But each time economic activity quickens, it hits a series of buffers. These buffers are well known , but denied by the Chancellor: a vast overhang of private debt now slowly being de-leveraged; a banking sector […]
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Another credit crunch looms
Mar 9th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.The finance sector is signalling alarm, and our politicians are once again asleep at the wheel. Another “credit crunch” may be looming. The most significant evidence emerged from the ECB’s second Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) on Thursday last week. The LTRO is simply language intended to disguise the “printing of money” by the ECB […]
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The Ukrainian goose & Greek gander
Feb 21st, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.The following is about the Ukraine, hardly a model of transparency, accountability and democracy. But it is interesting for what it tell us about the thinking of the great imperial powers (GIPs). On the one hand today’s GIPs make a great to-do about the need for democracy, often insisting that it is a condition for […]
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The French goose and the Greek gander
Feb 15th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.Inside the Eurozone, what’s good for the French democratic Goose it appears, is not necessarily applicable to the Greek democratic gander…. From the Financial Times of 13 February, 2012:
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As the cuts bite and growth stagnates, who will challenge our reckless bankers?
Feb 6th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.The humiliation of Fred Goodwin may have appeased a public baying for vengeance, but has done little to fix the broken global banking system or reverse the Second Great Depression. But then the public have been given very little leadership as to how to address the causes of this crisis. Politicians, economists, central bankers and […]
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Standard & Poor’s is right, ‘austerity’ has no economic clothes
Dec 8th, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.So European politicians want to shoot the messengers? Sure, ratings agencies haven’t always been reliable, decent or honest. And sure, like Eurozone politicians Standard & Poor is just following events, not shaping them. But on this occasion S&P’s analysis, if not their solution, is right. Credit Crunch 2.0 is fast accelerating and squeezing life out of […]
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It’s not the public, but the private finance sector, stupid.
Dec 5th, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.The Autumn Statement revealed but one thing: the Chancellor and his advisers are both ill-advised and dangerously ill-prepared for the forthcoming prolonged Depression. And if you think I exaggerate, let me remind you that 20 years after the Japanese debt bubble burst, Tokyo house prices are still falling, and the stock market is worth 60% less […]
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The terrifying intentions of Eurozone technocrats
Nov 22nd, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.As the world economy fails to recover, and instead threatens to implode we are now witness to political and social developments in Europe that are deeply alarming, even if inevitable. It is important that we understand and prepare for the implications of recent events. The good news is that both politicians and official policymakers at […]
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OccupyLSX – and police ‘kettling’
Oct 17th, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.On Saturday, I spent a frustrating afternoon trying to honour a commitment to the organisers of the above demo, to address the crowd on the steps of St. Pauls’ Cathedral. Got there at about 2.45 p.m to find that all avenues into the square on Ludgate Hill in front of St. Pauls were blocked by […]
