There is an interesting but little publicised article here, which shows that the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) – which is, effectively, a method whereby Local Authorities can borrow money at ‘beneficial’ rates, has just put up its rate by a whole 1%. Apparently, the Treasury sent a letter to Finance Officers in all local… Read more
Category:
Economics
Economics Theory
Neoliberal lies are certainly present in Brexit too
This was the FT’s front page yesterday (double click to enlarge): I’ll spare comment on Mr Putin’s Siberian holiday… in favour of the second article – an estimate by HMRC that outside the EU it would cost British business 15 billion pounds to fill in time-consuming and inconvenient customs declarations – based on the 215m… Read more
Capitalism’s indebted dynamism
Paul Mason has an interesting article in the New Statesman, which starts: In his own dumb way, Matt Hancock just summed up the survival strategy for global capitalism. Blinking into the camera lights, Britain’s hapless Health Secretary assured viewers that he could promise to build 40 new hospitals with just £100m because “the rest of the… Read more
Organising money and society
There are three (not strictly related) TED talks that are worth highlighting; one by the well-travelled journalist, Johann Hari, another by the social psychologist, Paul Piff and the third by the billionaire, Nick Hanauer. All, I think, are well worth watching and only about 15 minutes each. All I’d suggest, show that we have a… Read more
Rohan Grey’s ‘Banking Under Digital Fiat Currency’ Proposal – A Guest post by Richard Taylor
Rohan Grey, president of the US MMT supporting Modern Money Network, recently wrote a rather good article about why Facebook’s putative Libra currency is a bad idea. In it he links to some proposals for future banking regulation. In my view these proposals for “Banking in a Digital Fiat Currency Regime” are really interesting and… Read more
Brexit in the wrong order
There is a lovely recent tweet which I’ve come across from the lawyer and occasional FT correspondent, David Allen Green in which he suggests wording for any future Brexit referendum: – Please make it stop and all go away – Let all this carry on for decades and get worse. I think he needs to… Read more
Hoping for slacker fiscal rules..
Chris Giles is the FT’s economic correspondent and in a tweet he has said “I’ve suggested a looser fiscal framework than John McDonnell and Sajid Javid.” Perhaps he’s just listened to Alexei Sale on Radio 4 “Austerity is the idea that the global financial crash of 2008 was caused by there being too many libraries… Read more
Selling by the left
I confess I am not usually a fan of Jacobin, which often seems to me, to overstate its case. However there is an interesting article here where I have some considerable sympathy. The article points out the initial joy of the Barrack Obama election success. The author starts: I came to my politics the way most… Read more
The rise of economics as a method of control
This from the Economist of 29 August reviewing an American book, “The Economists’ Hour”, by Binyamin Appelbaum, which I thought historically instructive:. Few economists worked at the Federal Reserve in the early 1950s. Those who were on the staff of America’s central bank were relegated to the basement, at a safe remove from the corridors… Read more
Unlike his fellows, empathy but no knowledge…
I am often impressed with Rory Stewart’s thinking ability, and, unlike the current Conservative Despot in Downing Street, he is a gentleman and not a ‘cad’ – or worse. So this is a video from what I consider the thinking man’s Conservative (though, for sure, some have suggested that that this very idea is an… Read more