Tag Archives: Article

As loyal readers know, we are a network of macro- and political economists and environmentalists influenced by Keynes or concerned to restore his thinking. In our mission statement, drafted back in 2010, we considered “that conventional or ‘mainstream’ economic theory has proved of almost no relevance to the ongoing and chronic failure of the global economy and to the gravest threat facing us all: climate change.” We stand by that statement.  As the globalised and financialised economy...

PRIME is supporting a new programme to develop and communicate universal basic services (UBS) as a route to wellbeing for all, greater equality, full and decently-paid employment, and ecologically sustainable economic activity.  UBS is a framework for policy and practice that fosters collective responsibility, exercised through public institutions, to meet needs we all share.  It recognises that income has two dimensions: one is money and the other is ‘social income’, derived from in-kind...

This is a You Tube recording of a discussion organised by the Trans National Institute (TNI) on Wednesday, 7th October, 2020. Jayati Ghosh, Ann Pettifor, Alvin Mosioma and Oscar Reyes hold a stimulating conversation on how to finance a recovery from COVID-19 and invest in a just climate transition. They address key questions such as what options and mechanisms do we have in the current circumstances to avoid austerity and invest in a just transition? How can we ensure that the Global South...

On Wednesday (30 September) the Office for National Statistics published its second estimate of GDP for the second quarter of 2020, April to June.  The very marginally positive news is that the fall, between Q1 and Q2, was reduced from 20.4% to 19.8%.  Since this was still the largest recorded quarterly fall since records commence in 1955, this is hardly a cause for jubilation – and even less so since the Q1 drop was raised from -2.2% to -2.5%. As we discuss below, the position would...

This article was written in July, 2020 for Project Syndicate where it was finally published on 1st October, 2020. The global economy suffers from dangerous imbalances.  Economic goals for endless ‘growth’ lead to rises in heat-trapping gases that conflict with the earth’s limited capacity to manage rising toxic emissions.  Urbanisation, pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, depletion of wildlife, degradation of marine ecosystems – these and other economic activities disturb the equilibrium...

This article was written in July, 2020 for Project Syndicate where it was finally published on 1st October, 2020. The global economy suffers from dangerous imbalances.  Economic goals for endless ‘growth’ lead to rises in heat-trapping gases that conflict with the earth’s limited capacity to manage rising toxic emissions.  Urbanisation, pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, depletion of wildlife, degradation of marine ecosystems – these and other economic activities disturb the equilibrium...

Till now, I have supported much of what Chancellor Rishi Sunak has put in place, as measures to help the economy through the pandemic.  The furlough scheme has proved its worth. But today’s measures are inadequate and disappointing.  The new Job Support Scheme, under which the government will pay some 22% of the wages of employees who work at least one third of their usual hours.  This compares with the 60% of wages to be paid by the government in October, the last month of the furlough...

Nigel Doggett and Mike Davis of The Chartist magazine spoke to Ann Pettifor about why a Green New Deal is central to our recovery Published 20 September, 2020. How do you see the GND playing out against the Covid crisis? There are two roads to travel. One is the progressive one in which our leaders wake up to the scale of the climate threat and decide they are going to prepare. There are signs of that happening: little things like the French deciding to abolish burners in Paris streets. But...

The following article appeared on Progressive Post, the website of the Foundation of Progressive European Studies (FEPS) Today’s capitalism cannot tackle climate breakdown and cannot prevent the loss of biodiversity. It considers work as a cost to be minimised, to the detriment of the economy and the social meaning of work. High rates of return on capital (interest) require ever-rising extraction of the earth’s finite assets and the felling of its biodiverse ecosystem. Nature is crowded out...

The government wants us to return to our office workplaces in the cities.   The FT tells us: “The government will [this] week launch a media campaign to encourage more employees back to their workplaces amid growing concern in Downing Street over the rising number of job losses at service businesses in city centres that are reeling from a lack of customers. And from Sky News (Aug 20): “Just one in six workers have gone back to work in cities this summer after companies and staff ignored...