Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Dickens’ story embodies the nature of contemporary economic problems which we face, in terms of interest, debt traps and the meaning of the financial economy for both the haves and the have-nots.
If we truly want to increase equality, then, it will have to be created at a sustainable level, and thus ones much lower than that enjoyed by the rich, middle-classes, and even workers of advanced industrial nations alike. We may choose to fight inequality by way of strikes, wage increases, and taxation, but that will not return us to a golden age; it will hasten our rendezvous with economics in the age of resource exhaustion and mounting clean-up costs.
With economist, historian and author Michael Hudson of ‘The Bubble and Beyond’ and Nate Hagens, the former lead editor of the Oil Drum and an expert on global resource depletion.
Regeneration’ is one of those terms that is like motherhood and apple pie. Everyone wants regeneration, right? You’d be mad not to, surely. Yet all too often regeneration is about sweeping away the economy of local independent businesses and replacing it with big chains and brands. I’m sure if I found old photos of the centre of Manchester before it was ‘regenerated’ there would be a dazzling variety of independent businesses there, all now long gone or shunted out to the edge of the city.
