Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a green economic recovery the fact that there is no constructive connection between money, its cost and our ecological life-support system could, and really should, step into the limelight.
Always of concern to policy makers, interest rates tend only to capture the attention of the wider public if they

Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a green economic recovery the fact that there is no constructive connection between money, its cost and our ecological life-support system could, and really should, step into the limelight.Always of concern to policy makers, interest rates tend only to capture the attention of the wider public if they

Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a green economic recovery the fact that there is no constructive connection between money, its cost and our ecological life-support system could, and really should, step into the limelight.Always of concern to policy makers, interest rates tend only to capture the attention of the wider public if they

To understand why neoliberalism is in crisis, it helps to begin at the beginning with Adam Smith. He was the grandfather of market economics, but a more complex thinker than modern day neoliberals like to remember. They hail the ‘invisible hand’ – the idea that self-interest and unmanaged markets work best – and recall his famous discourse on the manufacture of the pin, revealing how the specialisation and division of labour led to huge increases in productivity.Less well remembered are his observations on the human consequences of that specialisation. The monotony would lead, he wrote, to the worker no longer being able to