Shitposting & political economy. Uprooting the Magic Money Tree w/ @positivemoneyUK. Press @LabGND. Occasional words @ wherever will have them. Own views etc.
The Bank of England needs to blacklist high-carbon bonds and spend on 'green QE', says Simon Youel of Positive Money
Things might seem a bit doom and gloom for most of us at the moment, but not quite so much for the banks, who reported better-than-expected Q3 results last week. After Barclays recorded a net-profit of £611m between July and September, HSBC and Lloyds upped them with profits of more than £1bn each, and NatWest £355m.
When world leaders arrived in Davos this week, there was no shortage of things to be worried about. On top of trade wars, Brexit, financial instability and slowdowns in the powerhouse economies of China and Germany, there is also the existential threat of climate change, which (encouragingly) ranked as the top worry in the World Economic Forum's survey of attendees.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that the Chancellor Rishi Sunak was planning on cutting the surcharge tax on bank profits by 60 percent in Wednesday's Budget. At the same time, the government is increasing National Insurance contributions for ordinary workers, and has slashed Universal Credit by nearly a quarter.
Simon Youel is Head of Policy & Advocacy at Positive Money, a non-profit research and campaign group working towards a money and banking system which supports a fairer, more democratic and sustainable economy.
Much has been made in the media about the lies and dishonesty surrounding the recent general election, with an investigation by non-profit First Draft finding that 88 per cent of Tory ads fed disinformation to the public.
Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government released on Monday poured cold water on the widespread misconception that Britain's housing crisis results from a lack of houses. Official stats revealed that the number of long-term vacant properties in England rose by 5.3 per cent in the 12 months to October, to a total of 216,186.
40 years later, workers, writers and politicians remember the historic 2 year strike led primarily by South-Asian film processing workers at the Grunwick Lab in Dollis Hill, North-west London. How did Grunwick pave the way for further suppression of trade unions and independent worker organisation?
The story of the UK economy is a tale of two economies. First there is the 'real economy' which we interact with daily, woven into the length and breadth of Britain, and characterised by productive output in the form of goods and services. Then there is a financial economy that sits on top of it, ...
If we sell our shares, taxpayer will lose over £30bn As RBS bosses yesterday sat down to their AGM with a plan to speed up the bank's privatisation, the Labour Party repeated their intentions to halt the government's botched sell-off.
