Funding the Future

Fear is the threat we face

Most people think they fail because they lack talent. In reality, many people stop acting because they are afraid of judgment, criticism, or being exposed as not good enough.
In this video, I discuss the powerful argument made in the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. The book suggests that the biggest barrier to success is not ability; it is fear.
That matters politically. If people who care about justice, equality and a politics of care stay silent, then the voices that dominate debate will be those who do not care about people at all.
Confidence does not come before action. It comes after action. The only way change happens is when people act despite uncertainty.
So the question is simple: what would happen if more of us spoke up?

Will Middle East war trigger economic shock?

The conflict in the Middle East is not just a military crisis. It is rapidly becoming a global economic shock.
With the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, vital supplies of oil, gas and industrial inputs are at risk. That means rising energy prices, inflation, supply chain disruption and political instability around the world.
But the deeper issue is political. Wars like this often emerge when leaders under pressure seek external conflict to avoid accountability.
In this video, I explain why this conflict could last far longer than politicians admit, why the economic consequences could be severe, and why the politics driving it matters as much as the missiles.
We also need to ask a deeper question: can politics return to a politics of care rather than fear?

War is not a reason to raise interest rates

The Bank of England meets on 19 March to decide on interest rates.
Many commentators now say rates cannot fall because war in the Middle East could push up oil and gas prices and increase inflation.
But that argument misunderstands what is actually causing inflation.
If prices are rising because of a global energy shock, raising interest rates will not reduce those prices. Instead, it will increase mortgage costs, reduce investment and push the UK economy closer to recession.
In this video, I explain why imported inflation from oil and gas prices requires a completely different response from the Bank of England.
Not all inflation is the same, and treating it as if it were is simply bad economics.

Billionaires won’t leave

We’re repeatedly told that raising taxes on extreme wealth will drive billionaires and millionaires out of the UK and that the economy will collapse as a result.
That story is economic mythology. In this video, I explain why the very wealthy are not as “highly mobile” as politicians claim, why money doesn’t “disappear” when someone changes residency, why businesses and jobs don’t pack up with the owner, and why a modest fall in sterling would not be the catastrophe we’re warned about.
The conclusion is simple: we should design tax policy around justice and economic need, and not fear and bluff.

Political economy at Cambridge - Live!

At our live event in Cambridge on 28 February I started the event by looking at political economy from 1759 to date. What I made clear was that Adam Smith talked about an economy of care and that’s what we need to be doing now. 

Spring Statement on BBC 2 with Jeremy Vine

Today Rachel Reeves gave her Spring Statement, take a listen to my comments on what she said on BBC 2 with Jeremy Vine

Rachel Reeves will get it all wrong today

Rachel Reeves will present the Spring Statement as if she's delivering stability.
The Office for Budget Responsibility will offer forecasts.
Markets will be reassured.
But the economics will be wrong.
In this video, I explain why fiscal rules, headroom, and the household budget myth are political theatre, not economic reality. Governments that issue their own currency are not revenue-constrained; they are resource-constrained.
If Britain wants growth, resilience, and functioning public services, we need investment, redistribution, and the politics of care, and not stability theatre designed to please bond markets.
This is Funding the Future economics.

Tax does not fund spending

Most people think tax pays for government spending. It doesn’t. In a modern monetary economy, governments that issue their own currency spend first and tax later.
In this video, I explain the six real purposes of tax:
ratifying the currency
controlling inflation
redistributing income and wealth
repricing harmful activity
strengthening democracy
organising the economy for public purpose
Understanding this changes everything about austerity, social security, inequality and public services.
If we want a politics of care instead of a politics of fear, we need an honest debate about tax.

Why good economics can feel wrong

People often ask me why the work we do on this channel and on the Funding the Future blog is so hard to follow. It is not because the economics is complicated. It is because what we say is counterintuitive.
We have all been taught a story about money. We are told governments must behave like households, must balance their books, must cut spending on public services and social security because “there is no money left”. That story feels familiar. It feels safe. And it is wrong.
In this video, I explain why good economics often feels uncomfortable. We are challenging ideas that politicians, journalists and economists have repeated for decades. When we explain that government is different because it issues money, that private saving requires government deficits, and that austerity is a political choice, people understandably hesitate. The problem is psychological, not technical.
That is why we repeat ourselves. New viewers arrive every day. Myths repeated for forty years do not disappear after one video. And if we want a politics of care and an economics of hope, based on proper accounting and honest debate about public services and social security, we have to keep telling the truth about money.
Bad economics has consequences. It leads to austerity, a failing NHS, broken local government and rising inequality. It pushes people towards the far right because they think nothing works. That is why this work matters, and why persistence matters.
If you value clear explanations of government finance, tax and the real economy, please subscribe to the channel, share this video and help spread the word. Change only happens when people challenge the myths they have been taught.
Read Funding the Future: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk
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Is MMT already in use?

People ask whether modern monetary theory is “just theory”. I think that’s the wrong question. The real test is practical: does the UK actually operate as a modern money economy?
In this video, I walk through the plumbing: Parliament authorises spending, the Treasury instructs the Bank of England, payments are settled through reserves, and only later do taxes and gilts come into play. That sequence matters because it tells us something uncomfortable but vital: austerity is a political choice, not an economic necessity.
I also set out the real constraints: not “running out of money”, but real resources:
- labour,
- energy,
- materials,
- skills, and
- technology 
and that inflation and climate limits should guide policy.
If we get the ordering right, we can finally have the debate we should have had all along: what do we need, do we have the capacity, and how do we manage inflation fairly?