Brexit summary courtesy of David Schneider. We must be at least half way down by now! (click to enlarge) … Read more
BoM August 2017
Our Book of the Month for August is a classic and strongly recommended by the Equality Trust. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better was published in 2009. Written by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, the book highlights the “pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and)… Read more
Project fear to project reality – Prof Michael Dougan one year on from EU referendum
Published today another interesting Video from Prof Michael Dougan…. Read more
If it was a vote for anything, Brexit was a vote for import substitution
The UK is unable to properly negotiate trade deals until it has left the EU, so the government seems to be trying to soften up various countries with a view to signing deals as soon as possible after Brexit. I imagine this is why Liam Fox has been to America and Boris Johnson to Australia…. Read more
The Duopoly of Money Creation
How is money created? Fiat money is created from nothing on the basis of a promise – a promise to deliver goods or service in the future. Another word for promise is debt – I prefer promise. Only if we believe in these promises does money have value. The teacher promises to teach. The roofer… Read more
Is the Institute for Fiscal Studies on to something?
In a recent ‘Times’ article (republished on the IFS website) Paul Johnson of the IFS comments extensively on their recent report on UK living standards: “..by far the biggest challenge to have reared its head over the past ten years or so … is the massive squeeze on incomes right across the population. After taking… Read more
The Bourbons would still be doing okay under English law
It has been a long time coming but it seems that at last leaseholds on new houses are to be banned. And ground rent on leasehold flats will apparently be able to be set only at peppercorn levels. But there are still not any definite plans to help those already affected by the blatant rent… Read more
Treat others …
This was spotted on Twitter. A slightly serious summer laugh – and best said with a Rhotacism :… Read more
Positive Money – a good campaigning organisation, but with a missing link
‘Positive Money’ have a decent idea. Money should be created with the consent of the public. Governments that have served the financial sector must look instead to serve the public. In this endeavour they want to set up a commitee to create it – rather like a Monetary Policy Commitee with extra powers, although in… Read more
‘Democracy in Chains’: a US export that’s not as new as some might claim
On Wednesday I read George Monbiot’s most recent column in The Guardian* in which he briefly discusses James McGill Buchanan, a man who features prominently in US historian Nancy MacLean’s new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. As Monbiot notes, McLean’s book makes what has previously… Read more
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