Funding the Future

When Tylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for US President everyone took note. But, do such endorsements matter and should more people put their heads above the parapet and declare what they think in public? My answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

Instead of picking on children on poverty and pensioners needing support with fuel bills to pay the price for the Tory economic aftermath Labour should be picking on tax cheats to fill its coffers, as the National Audit Office agrees, and as I show in the Taxing Wealth Report 2024, would not be hard.

Of all the groups in society anyone expected Labour to pick on when it came into office Labour were the least likely excepting, perhaps, children in poverty. Now it turns out they are the two groups Labour thinks should pay the price for the mess that Labour claims it has I inherited from the Tories. Political incompetence on this scale is hard to make up.

The Bank of England, and most especially its Monetary Policy Committee, have imposed misery on the UK over the past couple of years for absolutely no reason. If ever there was a reason for the Bank to be independent of the government, it has long gone. If the best interests of the people of the UK are to be served the Bank is long overdue for reform.

The UK’s devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland need proper powers to tax or they will always be governing with one arm tied behind their backs. Without such powers devolved government is a sham – and so too is the so-called United Kingdom.

You can’t discuss macroeconomics without knowing about  modern monetary theory. So, what is it all about? In this longer than usual video I offer my explanation. You won’t regret finding out.

There is no such thing as a state economy. Nor is there a private sector economy. There is always a mx of the two. The cappuccino is the perfect metaphor for that fact.

Inflation is always a temporary phenomenon that always cures itself. History proves that. In that case to make it the epicentre of economic management in the UK is absurd. We need much better goals if the country is to make progress, whether on employment, inequality, investment or climate change.

The far-right won an election in Germany last weekend, following on from successes elsewhere. Why is it so popular? And how can it be contained? The answers all come down to neoliberalism. It has destroyed faith in existing political parties, undermining the left in the process. Until the left comes up with a plausible way of beating  neoliberalism the far-right will be on the ascendant.

The EU has offered the UK the chance of free movement for people under the age of 30, but Keir Starmer is adamant that this must not happen. He has offered no good reason, just like the parent who says no to a child without offering explanation as to why. Could it be that having the chance to say no without good reason is why he sought power?