I had a pretty idyllic childhood and one major influence was my father, Kevin Danaher, (Guardian obituary here) who was a major figure on the Irish cultural scene with interests in folklore, vernacular architecture and military history. I grew up valuing the indigenous cultures and languages, not just of my native Ireland, but also these… Read more
Are these the advantages of the Job Guarantee?
In response to a recent report form the RSA that everyone under 55 should receive £5,000 per year for two years “as compensation for the way jobs were changing.” A government spokesman referred to it as a Universal Basic Income [UBI], which led Steven Hail, who lectures in economics at the University of Adelaide, to… Read more
‘Our future, Our choice’
A hard hitting and self explanatory video from one of the founders of this anti Brexit youth organisation – well worth its two minutes of your time. He speaks truth to power. As they suggest, the UK’s problems need to be fixed, not added to. The hashtag is #DontBrexitFIXit By way of contrast… Read more
Welcome to the money factory
After rather an animated discussion last evening I was reflecting on why , even when the Bank of England acknowledges that we don’t spend and tax (“Regarding whether taxation is necessarily required to finance government spending, the answer is no, it is not”), it is not enough for some. Of course there is the £435billion… Read more
The Swiss Magic Money Tree
The Swiss hold regular referendums on lots of unlikely subjects as we know. Well there is one coming up in June on money. They are voting on a so-called Sovereign Money system where it will be put to them that all new money in the state be created by the Central Bank. This is basically… Read more
Better judgement
Against my better judgement, I was persuaded by a friend to attend a talk given by a recently retired High Court judge she knew… (Needless to say I didn’t!) I confess, nonetheless, I was rather impressed. I remember judges from my youth who asked daft questions like who are the Beatles? This man was humorous… Read more
Democratic Brexit – or not
Bill Mitchell and Thomas Fazi have written what seems to me a rather odd article where they run through the history of the changes in the EU ending with its conversion to neoliberalsm. They finish: To conclude, any belief that the EU can be ‘democratised’ and reformed in a progressive direction is a pious illusion…. Read more
The REAL argument for Universal Basic Services
As a postscript to the previous piece on Universal Basic Income, (together with the interesting comment from Charles Adams on the same page) an American article makes a coherent case against a full Universal Basic Income: Our current economic crisis goes beyond the problem of income inequality. While inequality garners the most attention, it’s a… Read more
Five reasons why universal basic income is a bad idea – but only one is right
The FT has today, 11 February, an ‘opinion’ article by Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford, giving five reasons why UBI is such a bad idea, which is a useful addition to the discussions we have had here on Progressive Pulse a while ago and on TaxResearch UK in the last… Read more
At last! The Japanese speak out (but too late to stop disaster)
And so, at last, members of one of the major manufacturing sectors in the UK – Japanese car makers – backed up by their government, meet with our powerless Prime Minister to publicly express their concern at the direction in which Brexit is heading. In so doing they unambiguously emphasise that should it come to… Read more
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