Scotonomics

He 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 MMT.We discussed his thoughts on the 2008 crash. Towards the end of the interview, we turned to his thoughts on the white paper, sterilisation, and the Scottish referendum. This is the first time we have shown the full interview from 2023. This is a rare opportunity to consider Alex's thoughts on the economy and how his views shaped the referendum. And Scotland since 2007.W 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

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/