Funding the Future

Richard Murphy and occasional friends talking about everything you need to know to understand the economy, tax, finance and how we fund our future.

Episodes

Jul 30, 2025

11 min

Everyone says the doctor's strike is about pay. And yes, doctors in the UK are being grossly underpaid. But this strike is about something deeper. It’s about a collapsing economy, systemic exploitation, broken housing, and a government – including the current Labour one – that just doesn’t get it. This isn’t just about the NHS. It’s about whether our society is even working anymore. 

Jul 29, 2025

8 min

We’re constantly told that the wealthy are society’s great entrepreneurs. Without them, we’re told, there would be no jobs, no business, no innovation. In this eighth video in our series on wealth, I explain why that’s a myth. The rich don’t create. They're not entrepreneurs. They preserve, protect and hoard instead. It’s time to stop believing their PR myths.

Jul 28, 2025

12 min

The foundation of modern economics is that resources are scarce. But what if that simply isn’t true? In this video, I explore how the assumption of scarcity drives inequality, stress, and unsustainability – and what a post-scarcity economics could look like.

Jul 27, 2025

14 min

As boomers retire, there simply aren’t enough young people born in the UK to replace them. That’s why migrants are stepping in — and why we need them. With US evidence and UK parallels, I show how migration supports our economy, pensions, and future security.

Jul 26, 2025

10 min

This video explores how the wealthy flaunt their wealth—not with numbers, but through displays of power, privilege, and consumption. From gold-plated cars to opera picnics and £50 notes burned in front of beggars, conspicuous consumption defines status in our unequal world. But what damage does that do to the rest of us—and to them?
 

Jul 25, 2025

11 min

Labour says it’s launching a pensions review to make retirement more secure. But dig into the detail, and it’s clear: this is about cutting costs, not helping pensioners.
• Higher retirement ages
• Forced private savings
• Risky stock market exposure
• Means-tested pensions
We are heading for a pensions crash. And the City of London will cash in before it all falls apart. We need a fair, state-backed pension system.

Jul 24, 2025

8 min

The rich aren’t just rich — they’re scared. Scared of losing face. Scared of taxes. Scared of change. In this video, I explore how the wealthy protect their status by opposing reform, hoarding money, and resisting innovation. And the cost to the rest of us? Enormous.

Jul 23, 2025

11 min

Crashes don’t just happen – they build, and then they tip. In this video, I explain what causes a financial crash, why we’re facing one now, and why only government – not markets – can save us from the chaos that follows. Donald Trump’s actions, market overvaluation, geopolitical shocks – any one of these could trigger collapse. The consequences? Unemployment, insecurity, spiralling debt costs. Only Keynesian counter-cyclical action can offer recovery. We need courageous government – now.

Savings are dead

Jul 22, 2025

Jul 22, 2025

14 min

We spend £80 billion a year encouraging people to save – but it doesn’t fund growth, wages or investment. It just props up banks and financial markets. In this video, I explain why savings are essentially dead money and what a more effective economic strategy would look like.

Jul 21, 2025

14 min

Taxing the wealthy sounds easy. But what happens when we don’t actually know what they own or what it’s worth? In this fifth video in my series on wealth, I explore the complexity and ambiguity of wealth valuation and explain why taxing the income and gains from wealth might be the only serious route to taxing the rich more fairly.

Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Version: 20241125