This interview with economist Steve Keen might be hard to follow in places because he talks so quickly but his central message is clear. The growth in private debt (mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc.) over the last 40 years has been more or less exponential, and conventional economic policies have no effective way of stopping…
Here’s a nice short and easy to read article from Tom Streithorst on the economics of supply and demand that highlights the stupidity of austerity in the midst of a recession. It begins with a little homily on the inevitability of a universal basic income, which is always good to see.
The notion of creating new money and giving it in equal share to the citizens of the UK may sound ridiculous, but this article by Mehdi Hasan in The Huffington Post explains that the idea isn’t as radical as it sounds. For an economy to thrive money must be available and mobile so creating and…
Over the last couple of days my Facebook page has been plastered with posts and comments about Russell Brand’s interview with Jeremy Paxman, which has left me a bit perplexed because there was nothing remotely illuminating in Russell’s rant. His frustration with our dysfunctional political and economic systems is genuine and understandable but if he had…
Here’s some good news: economics students demanding that they get taught stuff about the real world instead of the nonsense that’s been gospel for the last 40 years.
Those of you who suspect that our politicians (Salmond, Swinney, Cameron, Osborne, Miliband, Balls, etc.) are clueless when it comes to sorting out our economy please watch Ben Dyson explaining how our money system actually works. Then you’ll understand why no-one from left, right, centre, or independent Scotland will be able to save us from…
Last month I wrote a piece about the European Citizens’ Initiative for a universal basic income but I had no idea that there was an organisation campaigning for just such a thing in Switzerland until a friend sent me this link from Reuters which tells us that there will be a referendum on the proposal sometime…
This article by David Greig is inspiring. He argues that the debate over Scottish independence is stirring up all sorts of ideas about how we should manage our lives and suggests that these are beginning to filter through into the mainstream media. I hope he’s right.
For those of you who have been following the Ralph Miliband story here’s an article from John Simkin that puts Miliband’s diary entry into context and exposes the extent of the Daily Mail’s breath-taking hypocrisy where love of country is involved.
The Yes Scotland campaign website has a page, “Undecided – tell us why?”, where you can fill in a form with your reasons for not knowing which way you might vote at next year’s independence referendum. A week or so ago I sent them this message: Our financial system is designed in such a way…
Views From The Boatshed 