Anpther classic TspeOp interview… i rue the day they switched to digital as i just don’t pore over them like i used to… hopefully they release another book…
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Steve Keen - The New Economics: A Manifesto. Loved this from start to finish - One of the few serious economists that have debunked the Reagan/ Thatcher philosophy of the past 4-5 decades, that have left every country that applied them in failed policies of austerity, small government (cuts to health and benefits and services that are essential for the lest well off, whilst creating an underclass that has never existed before, and spending in other areas like policing) The neoliberal reforms applied to Mexico & New Zealand are in the levels of human suffering.that are new and far reaching. Feels strange to see the modern (intentional) creation of a financially poor/educationally poor underclass as something beyond the extremism of the poverty in the past. An excellent book on this post Cold War disaster of hubris is False Dawn: The Delusions of Modern Capitalism by John Gray. Another who predicted what happened in 2007/2008 - The greatly admired, Nobel winner, and general ideologue of demonstrable nonsense, infamously said ’ we are now heading into a period of great macroeconomic stability - The Great Moderation. In 2004! An economic model that focuses on (too much) on Public debt, whilst pretty much ignoring private debt is bonkers. Pretty much every crash, crisis or recession has been due to excessive private dept along with their bubbles. Not to mention the mathematical proofs showing that macroeconomic cannot be derived from macroeconomic - governments are not households.
Of course public dept is pushed up to bail the whole system from crashing. A study done on the massive QE that happened after 2008 that moslty ended up in the financial sector went towards massive share buy backs, and the intitutions that created the mess. The study showed that a fraction of the money through QE could have had much better results had it been given to the general public.
Also recommended for fellow economic geeks is;
Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisi? - Steve Keen
The Paradox of Debt - Richard Vague
Anything by Mariana Mazzucato
Disorder - Helen Thomson (certainly not an economics books but required reading for a deeper understanding)
And of course, thee classics of Adam Smith, Karl Marx & David Ricardo. All three foundational in their own right, but like most economists today, they avoid energy. The most fundamental partof our economy, is almost ignored by most economists, includingnthose with ears to governments around the world. The correlation coefficient between GDP and energy is pretty damn close to 1.
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Absolutely. It was the same with COVID in that money was put in (mostly) ordinary folks bank accounts it was a policy that worked. It was also a good exercise in showing the dynamics of inflation. A very part of was price gouging rather than wages increases.
I do have reservations about Aid from, usually, western nations. Not the giving of aid in general, but the hypocritical and pretty racist way it’s done. The way in which the IMF (for example) has added rules to so called developing nations is fucking disgusting. A slightly different example, but one that really stuck with me, and almost made me vote Brexit, was the treatment of Greece.
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Anyone go to this?
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This may or may not be internet conspiracy conjecture, but who would actually be surprised?
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Was too young but I know a few older folk around my way who were there. Girl I know who was 18 at the time remembers being clobbered by the Plod. Maggies Boot Boys she called them
Some footage here
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If you want a really engaging Summer read with an apocalyptic eye on the future, this is it. The kind of book for people who have sometimes ( erroneously) imagined they would be fine if they got banged up!
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Inevitable
No, we were at something else the same night, or maybe the night before, and I remember mention of it. For whatever reason, we didn’t go.
Fairly sure Craig Christon was there and so was Justin Robertson.
Wife bought me this and currently half way through. Enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting to. Written really well imo and funny.
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I read it a couple of years ago, really enjoyed it. Some good anecdotes in it, with hindsight I should’ve noted stuff down I wanted to check out.
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Read this recently and absolutely loved it. Bradley is such a great writer and really brings things to life. A fun book pairing is A Brief History of Seven Killings.
Enjoy!
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Top book. Sounds like London by him is also a great read.
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On holiday and just finished the Neneh Cherry autobiography, which I recommend most strongly.
Now moving on to Edward Enninful’s autobiography
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