Who and what should Labour tax?
Funding the Future
Who and what should Labour tax?
Labour gave no positive clues on where they might raise revenue during the election campaign. So, what might they do in the October budget? And wha...
 Who and what should Labour tax? Those things that cause harm, those things that create inequality, those things that we should be changing to make sure we have a society in the future. I think that's a basis for taxation that is ethically justifiable, irrespective of the questions about revenue that might or might not arise.
The likelihood that this is a very happy Labour government is very low indeed
Funding the Future
The likelihood that this is a very happy Labour government is very low indeed
The Labour Party conference has begun. It must be agony for those newly promoted to high ministerial posts. Recently granted status as Privy Counci...
 Some new Cabinet ministers might enjoy the humiliation that serving Starmer and Reeves demands that they accept, but I suspect they are a decided minority. How long will it be before open rebellion becomes apparent?
Why can’t Labour do critical thinking?
Funding the Future
Why can’t Labour do critical thinking?
With a Cabinet made up of supposedly highly qualified graduates, all of whom would claim to have a social conscience, you would expect Labour to be...
 With a Cabinet made up of supposedly highly qualified graduates, all of whom would claim to have a social conscience, you would expect Labour to be able to think critically about the solutions required to the problems created by fourteen years of Tory rule. Right now, however, it seems that there is not one critical thinker among the lot of them. No wonder they’re already in such a mess.
When economic misinformation hides economic negligence
Funding the Future
When economic misinformation hides economic negligence
A couple of Tweets from yesterday as I do not have time to elaborate these stories today. The first is glaringly obvious. As a matter of fact, i...
 The UK‘s system of national accounting permits the presentation of entirely incorrect data by the Office for National Statistics that is passed off as correct largely because there is no proper accounting discipline, let alone double entry book-keeping, implicit within it. The resulting misinformation can be readily abused by the government.
The Bank of England is continuing to engineer a recession – and Rachel Reeves is letting it do so
Funding the Future
The Bank of England is continuing to engineer a recession – and Rachel Reeves is letting it do so
As predicted, the Bank of England did not reduce interest rates yesterday. They are joining with Labour in trying to create a recession in the UK, ...
 Labour is talking the country into a downturn and the Bank of England is delivering policy to make that happen. What are they trying to do?
Starmer exposed
Funding the Future
Starmer exposed
Why does it matter that Keir Starmer has received maybe £100,000 of personal financial gifts and support during his time as prime minister? And wh...
 Starmer's exposed his inner self, and it's not appealing.
Why is modern monetary theory so important?
Funding the Future
Why is modern monetary theory so important?
Some people argue that modern monetary theory is irrelevant or that it changes nothing. They’re wrong. MMT fundamentally reframes the power relat...
 Some people argue that modern monetary theory is irrelevant or that it changes nothing. They're wrong. MMT fundamentally reframes the power relationships within our economy, moving power away from banking and the City and towards democratic government control whilst prioritising people and full employment instead. No wonder so many people don't like it: MMT challenges all the privileges they enjoy at cost to the rest of us.
The way we are is unsustainable
Funding the Future
The way we are is unsustainable
The FT is full of questions about what Rachel Reeves is doing. As it notes: Cutting public investment in the UK would damage the “foundations of...
 The FT is full of warnings for Rachel Reeves this morning, suggesting that her direction of travel is unsustainable unless recession is her goal. Will she heed the warnings?
Where is Labour going?
Funding the Future
Where is Labour going?
The overwhelming impression Labour has given during its first few weeks in office is that it has no idea about why it wanted to be in government, o...
 The overwhelming impression Labour has given during its first few weeks in office is that it has no idea about why it wanted to be in government, or what it will do with power now that it has it. After fourteen years in opposition that appears quite extraordinary, except that it reinforces the idea that the whole Starmer project to date has simply been about defeating Corbyn. But in that case, it's fair to ask, where is Labour going?
What is the obsession with gold?
Funding the Future
What is the obsession with gold?
Every time I post a video about money, people appear claiming only gold is money and that we must go back on the gold standard. Those saying so are...
 Every time I post a video about money, people appear claiming only gold is money and that we must go back on the gold standard. Those saying so are economic dinosaurs who do not understand how the modern economy works and would rather we go back to the era that delivered the Great Depression precisely because of the obsession with gold. They really do need to be ignored.