John weeks explains how neo-liberalsim causes the rise of fascism. You can read this lecture here
Austerity
John Weeks – Same old same old…Tory austerity
The British economy is not doing well in any sense. Many UK citizens lead an existential battle of survival. All this has been caused by austerity, which was a miracle solution to solve all economic […]
Austerity
Renegade Inc: Myth Busting the European Dream featuring Mathew D. Rose
Politically you can ignore some of the people some of the time…but you can’t ignore all the people all of the time. For many years European citizens have intuitively opposed unaccountability, a lack of political […]
Economics
Andrea Lorenzo Capussela – The Political Economy of Italy’s Decline
20 March 2019 in Berlin A talk in our series “Economics beyond the Swabian hausfrau” Italy is a rich society served by an advanced manufacturing sector, where the rule of law is weak, however, and […]
Very interesting talk. However, two items of content appear contentious:
1. The talk appeared to favour a returnto fixed, or at least controlled, exchange rates. I find MMT very persuasive, for which floating exchange rates seem to be fundamental. Instead, I believe, it favours controls on capital movements to counter currency speculation. In this context John McDonnel’s fears are unfounded – but then the Labour Party (as with many Left leaning progressive Partys) does not seem to have cottoned on to (or is afraid to admit to) MMT.
2. The idea of a Universal Basic Income has also come in for, what I perceive as substantially valid, criticism – largely from a societal standpoint rather than purely monetary considerations. The proposals for a job guarantee are receiving much more favour.
John Weeks is a founder of Prime Economics. It would be interesting to see, from them, a comprehensive economic manifesto – as comprehensive, to a lay person like myself, as that expounded by Bill Mitchell and Thomas Fazi in their book ‘Reclaiming the State’. Perhaps the upcoming revised Labour Party Manifesto, John alluded to, is that document.
Thank youu for the commet.
A correction – I was not a founder of PrimeEconomics. It was founded by Ann Pettifor and Jeremy smith years before I began to write for it. I am mereley an associated author.
MMT is theoretically unsound and empirically dubious.