Beating fascism is the task ahead
Funding the Future
Beating fascism is the task ahead
A US-based writer called Chris Armitage has noted in his Substack that: Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed dem...
 Beating fascism now is essential. Once fascists get into power, they do not give us the option of voting them out again.
The case for recognising and supporting those with special educational needs and disabilities
Funding the Future
The case for recognising and supporting those with special educational needs and disabilities
Introduction I rarely write blog posts as long as this one. I am rarely as passionate about a subject as I am about the provision of special ...
 The right-wing assaults on the rights of children and all people who have autism, ADHD, AuDHD, and other special needs keep growing, and that's especially worrying for all those who know, care, teach and value such people for who they are and what they can do.
Is Rachel Reeves going to extend national insurance to investment income?
Funding the Future
Is Rachel Reeves going to extend national insurance to investment income?
I received a pile of emails from estate agents and financial advisers — otherwise known as people living in fear of losing their sinecures — du...
 Will Rachel Reeves begin to tackle the inequalities between work and wealth in our tax system this autumn? I hope so.
It is our duty to defend human rights
Funding the Future
It is our duty to defend human rights
There are moments when it is necessary to point out that there are good reasons why the UK has, since 1945, had such a strong tradition of supporti...
 Farage is going to announce his plan to end human rights in the UK this morning. We should all be profoundly worried.
Why we need migrants into the UK
Funding the Future
Why we need migrants into the UK
Background As I mentioned yesterday, I have written a column for the National on migration and the impending crisis that is going to envelop the...
 Without inward migration, the UK faces a massive pension crisis. To pretend otherwise is to simply misrepresent the truth: without continuing inward migration, the UK, and those who live here, will be in the deepest trouble.
Neoliberalism is not a viable option
Funding the Future
Neoliberalism is not a viable option
As is apparent from this blog, the issue of fascism has been much on my mind this week. Amongst the things that I’ve read has been a fascinating ...
 Fascism is built on fear. Any politics that can successfully challenge it must, then, be built in the diea of freedom from fear. That rules neoliberalism out as an option.
Banks cannot lend their depositors’ funds
Funding the Future
Banks cannot lend their depositors’ funds
Introduction I keep getting comments from people who claim that my suggestion that banks do not use funds deposited with them to make loans is wro...
 People like to claim that banks lend the funds deposited with them. They don't. In fact, they can't. It is technically impossible for them to do so. In this post, I explain why that is the case and how banks really create the loans that they offer to their customers.
Why the household analogy in economics is wrong
Funding the Future
Why the household analogy in economics is wrong
As I have written many times before, one of the most persistent and damaging myths in economics is the so-called household analogy. This is the ide...
 The choice is stark: either we keep pretending the state must balance its books, like a family in a soap opera debt-crisis scene, or we face up to the truth that it has far greater responsibilities and capacities than most of our economic and political establishment will acknowledge and start using them for the common good.
Why “spend before tax” is the key to unlocking a future for young people
Funding the Future
Why “spend before tax” is the key to unlocking a future for young people
In a post I published here yesterday, I explained that in a country like the UK, which issues its own currency, has an effective tax system, a fun...
 If we understand that, as a matter of fact, government spending comes before tax, we open the political space to demand secure homes, good jobs, free education, affordable childcare, and a liveable planet now, and not in some imagined future when the books “balance”.
Pie theory
Funding the Future
Pie theory
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is on the morning media round. She is treating the world to a dose of pie theory. She has actually referred to t...
 Lisa Nandy, the wealth secretary, is on the morning media round. She is treating the world to a dose of pie theory. She has actually referred to the need "for a bigger pie." And pie theory has never and can never solve any known economic problem.