Funding the Future

Tackling bosses' excessive pay

Chief executives in the UK and the US are now paid hundreds of times more than the people who actually create value in their companies. This is not innovation or entrepreneurship – it is extraction.
In this video, I explain why extreme executive pay is a driver of inequality, weak productivity, falling morale, and political corruption. I also show how tax can be used not to raise revenue, but to change behaviour – by making excessive pay expensive.
Drawing on proposals I developed for the TUC and current legislation proposed in the United States, I explain how fair pay ratios could be enforced through the tax system, why shareholders – not society – should bear the cost of excess, and why democracy itself is at risk if we do nothing.
Tax exists to shape outcomes. This is one outcome that it must shape.

Is Trump at war with Europe?

Has Donald Trump effectively declared war on Europe? His recent statements suggest exactly that.
In this video, I explore how Trump’s racist rhetoric, his support for far-right parties, and his attacks on migrants are being used to divide Europe at the very moment inequality and social pressures are rising.
Migration is not destroying Europe. Racism is.
And when racism is normalised, democracy crumbles.
This is the defining political choice of our time: fear and exclusion, or dignity and solidarity.
Which Europe do you want to live in?

What is it about national debt?

Most people believe the national debt is a danger to our economy. In this video, I explain why that story is wrong. National debt isn’t a burden; it is our money supply. Every pound, dollar, euro or yen in circulation exists because governments run deficits that create the currency we all use.
So if every country is in debt, who owns it? The answer is revealing. More than 80% of global government debt is privately owned — and largely by pension funds, life assurance companies and, ultimately, the world’s wealthiest households. The 1% benefit enormously from the interest payments we all fund.
I also explore what we can do about this: lower interest rates, tax unearned income fairly, and bring more of the money supply under democratic control.
If you want to understand how our economy really works — and why politicians keep getting this wrong — this video is for you.

How to prepare for a crash

What can ordinary people do if the financial crash many economists fear is coming?
In this video, I explain some practical, calm, and sensible steps to improve your financial resilience without panic and without doom-mongering.
From securing savings and pensions to food security and holding a little cash, these tips help you think ahead when the government won’t.
 

Where does money go in a crash?

Six months on, this video is as relevant as when we first made it, except a crash is probably nearer now. 
 
Every time stock markets drop, headlines say that billions have been lost. But where does that money actually go? If you want to understand crashes, confidence, and the baked bean market (trust me), this one’s for you.

Where’s the plan?

Too many campaigners talk about what’s wrong, but never explain what must change or how it could happen.
Real campaigning means finding solutions: identifying causes, proposing reforms, and then doing the maths on the finances to show how they would work in practice.
In this video, I explain what effective campaigning looks like, why technical detail matters, and why those who want real social and economic justice must deal with funding, finance and resource allocation.
We need movements that create real change,  and not just outrage, but without addressing finance, we'll get nowhere.

Politics? No thank you

People feel politics has nothing to do with them — and they’re right to feel ignored. In this video, I explain why our democracy is failing, why so many feel powerless, and how we can put people back in charge. From proportional representation to revived local democracy and citizens’ assemblies, this is a practical plan to rebuild trust and participation.
If you believe politics should serve the public, not the powerful, this is the video for you.

12 questions about money

Modern Monetary Theory — or modern money as I prefer to call it — simply describes the truth about how money works in the real economy.
Governments create new money every time they spend. Taxation removes money from the economy to control inflation. That’s not a theory: it’s how the Bank of England says money works.
So why do politicians insist the government can “run out of money”? Why do they say the NHS can’t be funded, but war and bank bailouts always can?
In this video, I share 12 essential questions to challenge politicians when they deny economic reality — and ensure the power of money is used for people, not for the wealthy few.

Bank warns: crash ahead?

The Bank of England has issued a stark new Financial Stability Report — and beneath the cautious language lies a clear message: the global risk environment has deteriorated sharply. From AI bubble valuations to fragile shadow banking systems, from overstretched credit markets to potential contagion across sovereign debt, a systemic crisis now looks more like “when” than “if”.
In this video, I explain what the Bank is really saying, why markets are repeating 2008 mistakes, and why the UK is deeply exposed.

Why is the government sacking doctors?

There are thousands of trained doctors in the UK right now — unemployed. Not because they’re unnecessary. Not because there’s no demand. But because the government refuses to fund the NHS roles we desperately need.
In this video, Richard Murphy explains how government austerity, fiscal dogma, and a fundamental misunderstanding of money are forcing young doctors out of medicine — and even out of the country — while people are left waiting for treatment.
If we have the doctors, we can fund the doctors. So why won’t they?