Scotonomics

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

Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future with Sky News Economics and Date Editor Ed Conway. William and Ed discuss his new book, Material World. The book is a deep (and it goes very deep) into the role that six materials have played in our economy and society.Ed aims to get us all thinking a lot more about the materials we use, where they come from, and their impact on our lives and our environment.It is a very entertaining read full of wonderful stories while challenging and questioning everything we use.I hope you enjoy the interview and get a copy of the paperback, which is out now!

The Austerity Paradigm. Read our paper here:https://scotonomics.scot/policy/explaining-austerity/Austerity takes three forms. Fiscal retraction reduces government spending on welfare, especially unemployment benefits and pensions, and targets cutbacks in health, education, and social care. Industrial retraction reduces spending on infrastructure projects. Monetary austerity maintains high interest rates. Together, these shrink the expenditures on and consumption of the poorest section of society. All are supported by the economic conventional wisdom. 

A common understanding in the UK is that the austerity project started as a response to the 2008 bank bailouts. American Economist Clara Mattie (2022) traced the birth of austerity to the 1920s in the UK and then to Italy. Following the horror of the war, the British and Italian governments initially promised to build more new homes, introduce universal education, and support worker involvement and ownership of production. A few years later, austerity policies were introduced to reign in workers' power and enable capital to regain control of the economy.Austerity takes three forms. Fiscal retraction reduces government spending on welfare, especially unemployment benefits and pensions, and targets cutbacks in health, education, and social care. Industrial retraction reduces spending on infrastructure projects. Monetary austerity maintains high interest rates. Together, these shrink the expenditures on and consumption of the poorest section of society. Those three forms of austerity: fiscal, industrial, and monetary reinforce each other to reduce workers' consumption and power while re-establishing the wealth and power of the wealthiest in society. This is the austerity playbook, which is more than a century old.

This is a brilliant behind-the-scenes look at the Bank of England and the Treasury with David Blanchflower, a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. It's a real warts-and-all look at the BoE.

The Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS) represents over 300 members across Scotland. We spoke to their CEO to learn more about those trusts and the impact they make across Scotland. Profit plays a part, but so do people, place, and planet. Find out more about some unsung heroes.https://dtascot.org.uk/

With Daniela Gabor, Professor of Economics & Micro-Finance, UWE.Professor Gabor cut to the chase. The state must have more control or involvement in creating money. It can spend that money into existence or direct commercial banks towards the right type of investment. Unless this happens, governments are forced to turn to shadow banks. Daniela wrote one of the most important pieces during the recent UK election campaign. Available here:https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...See some of Daniela's work:The (European) Derisking State: https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/...And link to all of her papers here:https://people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/Danie...🎧 Join us for a paid subscription to Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/Scotonomics 📖 Read our articles and policy papers onhttps://scotonomics.scot/ and👀 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter 'Economics of the Real World'https://tinyurl.com/49n4pbawSHOW LESS

n this LIVE explainer episode, William will explain the basics of MMT. He breaks down the strawman created by those with so much to protect from the current misunderstanding of how money is created in a modern economy.William covers:- the difference between a currency user (like a local council or the Scottish Government) and a currency issuer like the UK- the prescriptive element of MMT (what policies are recommended)- the descriptive element of MMT (what MMT tells us about our economy)- why do governments choose to account for spending with taxation and borrowing?- the essential and important role of taxes in our economy- why governments sell bonds (exchanging one form of risk-bearing money - cash - for another - bonds)- why the national debt could easily be called the 'national savings'- the damage of the shared belief in a fiscal framework for the UK (aka 'learned helplessness)- the resource constraints for government (and all private) spending- Why NO political party in the UK has yet to adopt an MMT lens- How MMT has identified the "magic money tree"I will also discuss and respond to Professor Mark Blyth's MMT points at our Scotonomics Economics festival in March.🎧 Join us for a paid subscription to Patreon  / scotonomics   📖 Read our articles and policy papers onhttps://scotonomics.scot/ and👀 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter 'Economics of the Real World'https://tinyurl.com/49n4pbaw

The Working Class Climate Alliance is an environmental grassroots organisation for the working class, led by the working class.https://workingclassclimatealliance.com/