When money is used to represent resources knowledge of how it is created is a democratic imperative. When people do not understand that there is no trickle down but a lot of hoovering up and that privatisation allows a small number of people to extract – in effect – rents from everyone else rather than… Read more
Category:
Politics
Vegan meat problem
A short pointer towards a suggested read – Joanna Blythman’s concise article here (in the food trade Bible – ‘The Grocer’) ‘Why we should resist the vegan putsch’ on the suggestion that we should eat very little meat from the Eat-Lancet Commission. Surprisingly and worryingly to me, it seems to have the chemical company, Monsanto,… Read more
Government policy mistakes and failures: unintended or ignored consequences?
We all know – or at least those of us who are able and willing to undertake periods of self-evaluation and critical thinking do – that our actions have both intended and unintended consequences. This applies regardless of whether we act as individuals or as members of groups and collectives (e.g. families, interest groups, political… Read more
Travelling hopefully is better than arriving
This French cartoon is too good not to share at a time of what is called the ‘Meaningful Vote’. The caption reads, SatNav style, ‘You have arrived at your destination’. Whoever remarked that it looked pretty similar to a few of the places the Prime Minister has given speeches has a point… Meanwhile I feel… Read more
Not another one? Why not use the numerical evidence to guide us?
I agree with Clement Atlee and Margaret Thatcher, referenda are “a device of dictators and demagogues”. The whole point of representative democracy is that we elect representatives to make decisions on our behalf. If we do not like their decisions, we can elect new representatives. Adding referenda into this mix creates conflicting mandates leading to… Read more
Job guarantee programmes: back to the future?
Following Peter May’s mention in his blog of the 8th January of Dr Fadhel Kaboub and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), and his advocacy of proposals for job guarantee initiatives, I happened to spot a link to a presentation by Dr Kaboub in a TRUK blog (http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/05/05/the-case-for-a-job-guarantee-in-the-uk/). The presentation is worth watching in full, not least… Read more
Brexit – Its Going to be a Bumpy Ride
On return from the Christmas break I had a forlorn hope for a moment of Epiphany, but like the Bourbons, the UK political class seems to have “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” Too much Kool Aid seems to have been drunk. Too much heat and not enough light. Nearly all parties seem to be going… Read more
Suggested requirements for a properly functioning Monetary system based on MMT in the UK
It is interesting that Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University, and president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, who is a great Modern Monetary Theory ‘MMT’ (Charles Adams’ summary here) and Job Guarantee Advocate, seems to be rather opposed to the Warren Mosler and Bill Mitchell idea that exports are like a… Read more
Travelling to work – and flying away
This is a map of the proportions of people who travel to work on public transport, by walking or by bicycle (click to enlarge) as against those who don’t. (acknowlegement @davidottewell) This shows an extremely small number of ‘good boys’ in a large class – limited to London, Brighton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge…. Read more
There was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman…
The cracker joke of the year…… Read more