Scotonomics

Professor Gerry McCartney and David Walsh joined us for this episode. Life expectancy is about more than just health – it’s about the kind of society we live in. And in the early 2010s, after decades of continual improvement, life expectancy in the UK, US and many other rich countries stopped increasing. For millions of people, it actually declined. Despite hundreds of thousands of extra deaths, governments and officials remained silent.This book combines robust evidence with real-life stories to demonstrate how austerity policies caused this scandal. It argues that this shocking and tragic suffering was predictable and caused by a dereliction of duty by those in power.The book concludes with an optimistic vision of what can be done to restore life expectancy improvements and reduce health inequalities.New Book Published by Bristol University Press.https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/social-murder

We discuss the Modern Monetary Theory lens with leading MMT economist Eric Tymoigne. You often hear the phrase "you can't do MMT". Eric explains that almost all governments already do MMT! However, not enough governments do MMT policies. Is it time for MMT to concentrate more on the prescriptive side? Do we have to show how the lens can help us create a fairer and more just society?Some of the background to this is covered here (free access)https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/ejeep/20/1/article-p11.xmlWe dig deep to find out what those 'modern' MMT policies are.

Scotland's former First Minster, the late Alex Salmond spoke about his economic influences. He shared his thoughts on Andrew Bailey, Gordon Brown, and Danny Blanchflower (he had a lot of time for Danny). We covered resource economics, the climate crisis, and Modern Monetary Theory.We discussed his thoughts on the 2008 crash. Toward the end of the interview, we turned to his thoughts on the white paper, sterilization, and the Scottish referendum.This is a rare opportunity to consider Alex's thoughts on the economy and how his views shaped the referendum. And Scotland since 2007.We hope you enjoy it as much as William did.

Denial is a safe space. The challenge to our accepted views are painful. But as Tad Delay argues, when it comes to our climate, we must do all we can to ensure that people are aware of the real challenges to our planet and our survival.

We discussed GB Energy and the problems that councils and the Scottish government have accessing money for Just Transition plans. We also talked about the concept of the Just Transition, which Fraser and William strongly believe must focus on reducing inequality in and between nations.

The Bristol £ ended in 2021. It reached some major highs and is recognised as one of the most influential and successful complementary currencies. After that, the team attempted to create a payment platform called Bristol Pay, which never quite got off the ground. Within that decade-long timeline, there are a lot of lessons to learn for any organisation which seeks to change the behaviour of individuals and companies. In this interview, Diana and William discuss the following:what a complementary currency iswhat made the Bristol Pound differentthe issues within the teamcurrency as a leverage point to change the systemthe idea of agency to affect changedealing with that initial successkeeping the momentum goinglife as a tech start up v community led platformmoney as an infrastructure support systemfungibility and velocity of moneyadvice for others looking to create some alternative currency or infrastructure support systemBy the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Value-Beyond-Money-Exploration-Alternative/dp/1912092301