That's one of the big problems with UK companies they don't reinvest profits back into the companies, they cream off the profits, it goes in their pockets and some to share holders instead of Investing in research and development and new equipment etc,. So productivity tends to stagnate which is exactly what's been happening well before this corona crisis here in the UK. And then they blame it on the workers & try to keep wages as low as possible. It's all very short sighted
People invest money into plc's with the expectation to get a return either in dividends or capital growth or hopefully both, these are expected returns, not guaranteed. But if the companies aren't managed properly, ie in the short sighted and short term way they are often managed here in the UK it's not sustainable. Those companies need to reinvest some of the profits into R&D and new equipment, better more efficient ways of doing things not just flogging the workers more. You obviously didn't understand what I was saying. And I'm sure a lot of my company pension scheme is largely invested in UK plc. But unfortunately due to brexit and the tory government's mismanagement of the economy the returns from the UK stock market has been pretty dismal so my pension isn't worth as much as it could have been. Perhaps you should do some research on how the Germans manage their companies, and how their stock market works, how the German government manages the economy and their public services, because it's much better than our government in the UK. You are full of bullshit you need to take your blinkers off, pull your head out of your arse
@@19prophet45 yes I imagine thru exactly the type of mismanagement I'm reffering to. Shareholders don't run the companies, the directors and managers do. I understand I've owned shares in companies and I didn't get a say in how they're managed. With accountants running companies it's all just about the profits and short term thinking, trying to make a quick buck. But this isn't sustainable longer term. And what do you mean a company isn't a person, I never said it was, but allegedly companies are owned and run by human beings. Should should watch Michael Moore videos, in particular the one titled Capitalism the love affair, I think that was the title. It could be an eye opener, when he says why do we live in a democracy, supposedly here in the US, but when we go to work it becomes a dictatorship. He then goes on to explain there is an alternative, a shows a couple of companies in the US that are run as cooperatives, where the workers are all part owners, and all have a vote on everything that happens, on all decisions made. And it turns out the 2 companies he showed were much more successful than firms run along the normal capitalist lines. All the workers were payed much higher wages than workers in the same types of jobs in other firms. The profits were higher, I think that's most likely down to the fact there weren't any fat cat directors to pay big salaries and bonuses to or shareholders to pay. And because all the workers got a say in the decision making and the way things were done, so I guess more money could be reinvested back into the companies instead of the people at he top creaming off the profits for themselves
@@brettharter143 so where do these directors get the money to pay their huge bonuses and large salaries. Your just another tory troll aren't you, this channel isn't for people like you go and watch daily telegraph videos or we got a problem videos, they're more on your level
@@brettharter143 I'm a middle aged man, not a student I'm working class. And I'm sick of these tories fucking everything up, making us poorer whilst the wealthy get richer. And we are struggling to survive and probably won't be able to retire, thanks to the tories putting the state pension age up and up. So we may not get what we've been paying for all our life, working hard all our life and paying all our taxes and NI for nothing, just to see the tories come along and destroy it all, including destroying public services thru their funding cuts just so they can give tax cuts to big corporate businesses and the wealthy at our expense
Terrific! Only wish we could give to Novara the tuition costs for the tremendous worth your shows give to educate us! A class act as usual. Well done, work. Thank masses! Aaron & Grace.
Great interview! You are running your audio a little too hot into whatever compressor/limiter you are using tho or you might need to reduce the attack, release and gain reduction on your compressor/limiter, in particular the initial transients after a moment of silence come in very loud and then the body of audio gets smashed after it. Not a big issue, just a couple moments with silence and then talking where it is kind of distracting.
If no-one is allowed to work during lockdown, why are landlords still allowed to collect rent? The whole economy should go into hibernation during lockdown periods, since the entire basis of it - productivity - is being put on hold.
Power team. Really enjoyed this. Glad we have both you and media like Novara to bring this excellent analysis to the people. Keep it up please. We need this.
So wealth and power has to become even more concentrated in order for there to be a large enough mass of dispossessed people to achieve an overthrow, or we need to somehow increase election turnouts from 65% to 85%. This is pretty bleak stuff.
@@fredatlas4396 we've got the same exact issue in the US, enough people have to get hungry and then it happens, not before, hopefully politicaly active lefties can prevent that. The capitalists are too greedy and removed to prevent it, just a matter of when.
As a proper MMT stan I'm sad to see Grace flinch at the discussion, but I also think that unlike a lot of MMT's critics she highlights the right question. MMTers *do* think about power relations, for instance part of the reason they want to break the link between taxation and spending is that it removes the unearned power that rich people exert over production and legislation. Many also say that one of the purposes of taxation is precisely to reduce the power of the rich: Bill Mitchell often says "I want to tax the rich out of existence". And that's why it's the right question. Focusing on power shows the places where the left actually can take a lot from how MMT frames things: there is more that links the left and MMT than the discussion often accepts.
If we didn't have taxes how could we fund public services. And we have a very good example with the tories who have been running this country since 2010, a fact that a lot of people conveniently overlook for one reason or another. And it's clear their ideology and policies don't work, they cut funding for all public services, NHS, police, infrastructure, welfare etc etc. So they can use that money to give tax cuts to big corporate businesses and the wealthy. That's why the economy and public services were already in a mess before this corona virus outbreak. It's not sustainable and doesn't work for the majority of people, as we are just getting poorer and struggling to survive while the wealthy get richer. These disgusting polititions should try living on a minimum wage, and without their expenses payments as well. The mark of a civilised society is their welfare system, which under the tories is being destroyed, I'm sure you can understand that, which means we are not living in a civilised society any more or a democracy thanks to the tory party and their backers
@@fredatlas4396 If the government didn’t spend money into the economy, how would the private sector get the money it pays in taxes? Also, just as a matter of mechanism, the state doesn’t check the account marked “taxes” before it spends. It just spends and decides later what to do with the liability that generates. So seeing as it doesn’t take the money out of the pile marked “taxes” where exactly does the money come from?
When workers get payed higher wages that boosts the economy, because its mostly the working classes who spend money, the wealthy are more and more saving their money into investments and defined contribution pension schemes in the hope of retiring earlier maybe. Rich people are often extremely careful with their money
@Daniel Clark Clark that's the problem we need to be saving for our retirement when we are younger, so the investments have time to grow, but most people especially under tory government's don't have enough money to save for retirement. You think they say someone in their twenties needs to be saving 20% of their gross income into a pension scheme for 40 yrs who can afford to do that only the wealthy. And the main problem is workers used to have defined benefit pension schemes so it wasn't a problem. But since most companies if not all have scraped those schemes because they don't want to pay for it, now we're screwed unless your lucky enough to have a high payed job
I like that Bastani is legitimately trying to get answers out of Blakeley, it means that he pushes a lot harder than someone who is just trying to promote a book
This is all fine but lets get the strategies and practices in place now to transition beyond capitalism and the institutional structures through which it continually reproduces itself.
@@nnnnsaakadamanas218 That's a good start. But we don't need to let transport get sucked back into Government control. A bus organization in which every employee has a %dividend and in which the workers vote on who the management team will be and what %dividend they can be awarded. So instead of fucking workers around, management become servants to workers.
@@charliebridges3584 you should watch Michael Moore's video I think it is called capitalism the love affair, of course it's about the US, but it's still relevant to other countries. He talks about an alternative to capitalist run businesses. Co ops just like you were suggesting, I'm sure you would find it very interesting
interest rates have NO say on cost of borrowing for the consumer or for corporations from banks. Interest rates are low now, but as a consumer the credit cards are still high at 12+% interest rates in the USA.
The End of Free Market Capitalism. We have never ever had Free Market Capitalism, bailouts are not capitalism.Bailouts are socialism...Bailouts 1987,2001,2008,2020 and more to come....
Proposing a long-form interview/discussion on the various constitutional crises facing the United Kingdom or specifically the likelihood of Scottish secession from the UK
It would be so useful if NM could create an economic explainer series from a socialist perspective going from the absolute basics up to higher level stuff. I think the left really needs something like this so people can engage with these ideas whatever level they come in at. Most intro to economics video series are very much capitalist centred. Have a look at the “crash course” series on economics (cheesy, american, capital centred but a useful learning method for the digital age) Meadway & Blakely would be excellent for this! Especially now students won’t have access to “anti capitalist” material in schools lol
I want to know how corona will affect the production of triangular spicy treats. Will someone write a book about it? It doesn't have to be long, just as long as it's not just filler.
If big companies/asset holders can borrow at 0 percent it is the equivalent of a free bet. Theoretically you only need to gain a fraction of a percent or a unit of profit to end up making a profit. I put a quid on it Meeeehhhhhh.. Put a few billion on it - result!! Basically - 1bn at a 3% increase is 30 million quid. My Penny shares on at a quid was not worth the effort of paying for the stamp for the letter or the electricity of using the internet. The main thing for the big boys ( they are always boys ) is the SPQR effect. Small Profits - Quick Returns but a small profit if you have a billion as a stake is a miles better return than betting a thousand pounds. The irony is ( and I like abet ) is that if the government gave me a stake every Saturday to have a bet or bets on the horses there is no guarantee that I will win. I may be crap at betting on the horse no matter what I think I know. The Bail Out of 2008 paid the crap bettors stake and the returns as if they had won the bet where instead they were crap bets. They lost and still won. Re: State Capitalism. In the Neo Liberal l world can we really expect the Anti _ Statists to have any clue as to how to use The State as a tool for Economic policy? 40 years of Thatcherite Anti State politics has moulded a set of idiots who have no idea whether the State is the best way of stimulating/saving the economy. Yet this is what they are doing whether they know it or not in the Covid crisis. This is not planning or intervention - this is blind panic. :' The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn will bankrupt the economy ' p.s With interst rates at zero banks will charge on all accounts - increase fees and ratchet up Credit Cards and loan payment. Interest rates ( retail ) is based on risk. There s a lot of ' risk' around now. I feel Bail -ins coming on too. Cyprus in the Eurozone is a precedent.
I still don't understand why a controlled form of deflation FOLLOWING the start of a recession is a bad thing. Especially if QE is being used as a tool by central banks to maintain whichever stock market we're talking about. If people have already lost their jobs and wages have been stagnant or at the most their pay increases have always been under the rate of inflation *except for politicians, TV personalities and various executives, then a bit of deflation in consumer prices would be good.
I get what your saying but it looks like things that everybody has to pay for like water, energy council tax etc etc have been going up way above pay rises. So how has this helped ordinary people who don't get payed enough. If stock markets go up that mostly just helps the wealthy people, as most people don't have money or enough money to invest
@@fredatlas4396 That's my point - if consumer prices for utilities as well as goods went down due to deflation whilst the state helped with maintaining current wage levels then, the companies might take a short term hit to their finances and the share prices might drop, but then that would help both the common worker as well as the investor which will mean consumer spending would increase as well as more investment in a bull market. Everybody wins in the long run.
@@mpkend Yeah I know that is the default definition of what happens in a recession from Economics 101 and Keynesian old-think, but if the state is able to maintain some of the wage levels through various 'furlough' schemes around the wealthier parts of the world during these Covid times then why couldn't they do something similar if and when we return to a semblance of normality? If they could maintain wage levels whilst consumer prices dropped then people would logically spend more and thereby help fund an immediate recovery. Basically a little state regulation at the right moment in time might produce far better results than blind faith in a neo-liberal free market ideology.
@@conradhart3881 I think I get where your coming from, but we've been in one of the longest bull markets in recorded history since 2009. And yet the UK economy hasn't been growing, not going anywhere. The wealthy have been getting richer and the rest of us poorer. We had a chance to put Jeremy Corbyn in charge in December 2019,but it appears a lot of people voted against their own best interests and the countries interest as a whole. We need to re nationalise water, energy and the railways. Germany has publicly owned services, but the polititions don't run them, they're run by private management. But because there's no shareholders or fat cat directors to pay they can be provided much more cheaply and prices to the customers kept low, unlike what the tories promised in the 1980's when they said privatising public services would give us better service and prices kept down because of the market competition. But what's happened in reality is prices have been going up way above inflation and the service provided hasn't got any better, in fact it appears in many cases the service is much worse just look at the railways and all the delays, trains not running on time or sometimes at all
Those states that have there own viable currency or are in control or have significant influence of a currency will recover on a macro level. The US, UK, China, Germany will recover but Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Eastern Europe and most of the rest of the world will take another hit as austerity is forced upon them. Korea and most of Asia are exceptions.
Keep listening. I Had the same experience, almost stopped the video because it was giving me a headache, but the subject is too interesting so I kept on listening and the sound was fixed about 15 mins in!
So basically quantitative easing after the 2008 crash creates money that is flowed straight back to the top of the pyramid...creating more crashes because no one has money and therefore unable to compete with big corporations. Maybe Quantitative easing money should have been directed into funding small startups that could compete with these corporations in the long term by creating renewables for example.
We need to try free market capitalism before we can evaluate whether it works or not. It is not a "free market" when corporations and banks get subsidies and "bailed" out every time they fail.
Free market never existed in the 1st place. It's like perfect vacuum in physics... it's hypothetical but not possible in reality. For as long as there were markets there were also elements that actively worked on making it not free.
Isnt it clear that the reason, Amazon, Facebook and Tesco are doing so well is cause they are online?!! With Tesco being a supermarket, they do offer a low budget range at basement prices as a standard, continous on all grocery and food areas. Allowing for the poorer to do a shop. And anyone to economise. I would say that facebook now permitting a marketplace, is infringing on other huge platforms, and in this case like there may be others needs someone to run a line through these huge companies, shpock for example shares sellers with this new addition, which i dont want to go to, but also i think infringes on the seller's arena, in running the line that a giant cannot trangress past it's functional ability i.e social platform. It further isnt the fault of these services, like Amazon, with its completely instant delivery or Facebook with online interaction suddenly becoming the main way to interact, its just their provided functions are optimised at this time, with the virus closing all avenues.
It took advantage of the regulatory environment in which it paid little to no tax. The power it accumulates allows it to swallow up smaller rivals and dictate terms and conditions to its minnows leading to further quasi-monopoly power. It has hollowed out high streets, which are important social spaces. Smaller traders lose autonomy and eventually have to trade on terms dictated by Amazon. Even free market advocates don't often make a case for monopoly power. Attention has been drawn to the conditions of people who work for Amazon in terms of unionisation, pay and conditions. It is also cementing a system of hyper-consumerism in which milions of people buy billions of unnecessary things. This is damaging to environmental protections both here and in developing countries. It empowers consumers, but has many deficits in terms of social and environmental protections.
So now the privately educated sons and daughters of wealth lecture the working class on whats good for them and we pretend its socialism. Whatever happened to socialism being the self-organisation of the working class ? This lot will be the next Living Marxism-we can watch their rightward slide as they join the commentariat. Might be nice to hear a working class voice once in a while instead of vocal fry. What kind of watch is that, Grace?
Sounds like you've got a considerable chip on your shoulder and don't like people who are smarter than you are. Why not listen to what she is saying rather than make such a lame attempt to attack the person?
I'll happy carry the chip on my shoulder. The left has lost any audience with the class it claims to represent because it has drawn its ranks from a here today, job in the city tomorrow student constituency and has lost any clue about what working class people care about. In the process it has also lost any capacity to bring about any real change. We have gone from an active left that once had the capacity to organise mass rent strikes to one that is incapable of stopping a single eviction on any estate. The middle class left is a product of defeat but it's also an obstacle to the reformation of any working class movement in the future. Your implication that I should shut up and listen to my betters is symptomatic of the end result ( strange kind of socialism that tells working class man to be quiet and know his place. ) I'd still love to know what kind of watch shes wearing. You're the kind of twats who sneer at the consumerism of the working class when they see someone in a knock-off Balmain t-shirt so, you know, just curious...
And you, having told me to shut up and listen to my privately educated betters, now want to talk about moderation and respect!! My problem is this :- we need to rebuild a working class movement capable of changing the basis of social and economic power. The socialist movement though is colonised by people who have no skin in the game. That fact in itself is a major deterrent for most working class people. Blakeley is saying nothing new. She is recycling stuff she's read while doing her PhD - Pettifor, Mandel, David Harvey. My point is that she's symptomatic of a left that has lost any organic link with the working class but isn't troubled by that fact. As per Corbyn- we were told Momentum was going to be a social movement. It had no social weight at all. it ended up being the enthusiastic chair stackers for Campaign group MPs. I don't doubt your sincerity ( I do doubt Blakeleys likely long term commitment to the labour movement) but do you not think that as a socialist there's something problematic about your first response to me being to tell me to shut up and learn from people you presume are better educated than me?
@@nickmoss8558 There is no point in talking about 'building movements' and fighting as cantankerously as possible with the other people who belong to them. That isn't the way forward. "do you not think that as a socialist there's something problematic about your first response to me being to tell me to shut up and learn from people you presume are better educated than me?" I may have misread your original post, as most people who get angry about leftists being too 'middle class' - whatever that means - are squarely on the right of politics. It is a favourite jibe from the Richard Littlejohns of this world. I wouldn't have guessed from what you said in the first instance that you were not a Tory/right winger/Labour right winger trolling. I don't think anyone would deny that the left is not strong overall and that it is no longer deeply embedded in the working class/trades unions movements of yore. However, the 'middle class' leftism of Corbyn did very well amongst the working age population - actual workers as opposed to retired people who identify as working class, yet who are often owner occupiers and relatively comfortably off. As for Grace Blakely, she is a superb communicator and synthesiser of ideas. In terms of recycling, that is what 99% of us do, including most authors and academics. Asking for originality is setting the bar very high and I don't think it is a claim I have seen GB making. I don't see any reason to accuse her of bad faith.
It makes zero sense. Why do these people think that a description of the way the system works is a critique of it? Obviously there are "all sorts of subsidies these big companies get" and then there's monetary theory. Debt is not a "power relation," urgh
Interesting. She's talking about what's happening, and he's confused about why. There's an assumption that there's smart people in charge that understand their own self interest. That's never been the case.
Sounds like they've got a compressor on the mics to control the audio level, and the feed to it is too hot, so it's pumping - you can hear the attack of the compressor as it kicks in again after each short gap in the audio
End of free market capitalism, GB will be finally able to establish prices on lobsters so all the UK citizens will be able to afford them! Lobsters for all
if you are stonking rich andlook at London property prices, you think: What a shit investment. I get 3.3% yield (annual rent income vs price of property). But if interest rates have been lowered to 0.5%, you think: Wow, 3.3%. That is shit loads more than i get for bonds or cash. That and the singal from govt and central banks tat we will always help property prices rise explains the relationship between cutting rates and asset prices. Those LEftists that support ever lower interest rates are mugs or charlatans
Ms Blakeley seems nice and smart but unfortunately she seems though take the presumptions of the “Enlightenment” economically as fundamental truth. Economic centralization as new to capitalism or authoritarianism is antithetical to libertarian marginalist theory because they cry endlessly about “the policy of force”. She clearly has wide breadth of “King’s List” knowledge on Econ but she is lacking in “Proletarian Economics” depth
Absolutely not. Alternatives to markets have been tried but all have failed, disastrously. Saying that Hitler, Stalin and Mao didn't do it right is nonsense; their tyranny is intrinsic to the system. Socialism cannot work because economies are too complex for the flexibility and freedom to be done by anything other than the spontaneous organisation of evolution [a market economy is evolutionary]. Second, Marx was wrong in his own lifetime because average wages and population tripled between his birth and death [but he ignored this incovenient truth]. And, he didn't know this, economic growth was zero for 20000 years until 1800 then took off and hasn't stopped since, and probably never will. Finally, millions of people cannot form a government so they have representatives that then become totalitarians and that is far, far too attractive to despots and demagogues who [would] exploit woolly minded idealists [like Blakely] and chaos, which never happens in free market economies [socialism has been tried in market economies such as post-war UK and Sweden but they were also disasters and no-on wants a repeat] and were such a failure in Soviet Russia, etc that, in desperstion, socialists have turned to wokism which project is so incoherent, self contradictory and impractical that it too is bound to fail. You are right that we have a pseudo socialist government now but it will not last. The US and UK governments know socialism cannot work in the long term and the crisis and brexit will be used to make the economy even more a market. Assets [and those who have and control it] are growing as a proportion of the economy as technological development becomes the key driver of the economy whixh is profoundlt deflaitonary so we will have massive QE. This is indeed a massive problem unfolding but socialism is not the answer for the reasons above. What is special about markets is that they spontaneously adapt.
Have you not read the first pages of the Communist Manifesto? Marx and Engels wax lyrical on the fantastic achievements of capitalism. But their answer to the question, 'is capitalism a wonderful way to lift people out of poverty and give them freedom?' is both YAY and NAY.
"Growth was zero for 20000 years until 1800 then took off and hasn't stopped since, and probably never will." First, what happend just before 21,800 years ago? Is that the last time there was growth before 1800? (Sumerians, Egyptians, Romans, ancient China, etc..?) As for the 1800 acceleration, that was thanks to fossil fuels and the invention of steam locomotion. Also, you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet.
How can there be an end to something which hasn't existed yet? Nobody's ever had free market capitalism, only state-supported capitalism. A totally free market would have collapsed a long time ago.
So interesting, clear, accessible and with no shouting, patronising or point scoring. Thank you
That's one of the big problems with UK companies they don't reinvest profits back into the companies, they cream off the profits, it goes in their pockets and some to share holders instead of Investing in research and development and new equipment etc,. So productivity tends to stagnate which is exactly what's been happening well before this corona crisis here in the UK. And then they blame it on the workers & try to keep wages as low as possible. It's all very short sighted
People invest money into plc's with the expectation to get a return either in dividends or capital growth or hopefully both, these are expected returns, not guaranteed. But if the companies aren't managed properly, ie in the short sighted and short term way they are often managed here in the UK it's not sustainable. Those companies need to reinvest some of the profits into R&D and new equipment, better more efficient ways of doing things not just flogging the workers more. You obviously didn't understand what I was saying. And I'm sure a lot of my company pension scheme is largely invested in UK plc. But unfortunately due to brexit and the tory government's mismanagement of the economy the returns from the UK stock market has been pretty dismal so my pension isn't worth as much as it could have been. Perhaps you should do some research on how the Germans manage their companies, and how their stock market works, how the German government manages the economy and their public services, because it's much better than our government in the UK. You are full of bullshit you need to take your blinkers off, pull your head out of your arse
@@19prophet45 yes I imagine thru exactly the type of mismanagement I'm reffering to. Shareholders don't run the companies, the directors and managers do. I understand I've owned shares in companies and I didn't get a say in how they're managed. With accountants running companies it's all just about the profits and short term thinking, trying to make a quick buck. But this isn't sustainable longer term. And what do you mean a company isn't a person, I never said it was, but allegedly companies are owned and run by human beings. Should should watch Michael Moore videos, in particular the one titled Capitalism the love affair, I think that was the title. It could be an eye opener, when he says why do we live in a democracy, supposedly here in the US, but when we go to work it becomes a dictatorship. He then goes on to explain there is an alternative, a shows a couple of companies in the US that are run as cooperatives, where the workers are all part owners, and all have a vote on everything that happens, on all decisions made. And it turns out the 2 companies he showed were much more successful than firms run along the normal capitalist lines. All the workers were payed much higher wages than workers in the same types of jobs in other firms. The profits were higher, I think that's most likely down to the fact there weren't any fat cat directors to pay big salaries and bonuses to or shareholders to pay. And because all the workers got a say in the decision making and the way things were done, so I guess more money could be reinvested back into the companies instead of the people at he top creaming off the profits for themselves
@@brettharter143 so where do these directors get the money to pay their huge bonuses and large salaries. Your just another tory troll aren't you, this channel isn't for people like you go and watch daily telegraph videos or we got a problem videos, they're more on your level
@@brettharter143 I'm a middle aged man, not a student I'm working class. And I'm sick of these tories fucking everything up, making us poorer whilst the wealthy get richer. And we are struggling to survive and probably won't be able to retire, thanks to the tories putting the state pension age up and up. So we may not get what we've been paying for all our life, working hard all our life and paying all our taxes and NI for nothing, just to see the tories come along and destroy it all, including destroying public services thru their funding cuts just so they can give tax cuts to big corporate businesses and the wealthy at our expense
Terrific! Only wish we could give to Novara the tuition costs for the tremendous worth your shows give to educate us! A class act as usual. Well done, work. Thank masses! Aaron & Grace.
Grace is great every damn time!
1:37 constellations of interests
I'm extremely envious of her. Only three years older and she is already incredibly accomplished and articulate. Good interview!
There is always time to catch up with her if that's what you want to do 🤷🏿♂️
Don’t waste time being envious 👍🏿
Great interview!
You are running your audio a little too hot into whatever compressor/limiter you are using tho or you might need to reduce the attack, release and gain reduction on your compressor/limiter, in particular the initial transients after a moment of silence come in very loud and then the body of audio gets smashed after it.
Not a big issue, just a couple moments with silence and then talking where it is kind of distracting.
This was a great discussion and very enlightening, as someone who has a very base level understanding of economics. Thank you Grace!
If no-one is allowed to work during lockdown, why are landlords still allowed to collect rent?
The whole economy should go into hibernation during lockdown periods, since the entire basis of it - productivity - is being put on hold.
My thought exactly Peter. There should have been a freeze, everywhere. Instead they want people to pay bills but not earn income. Its a trap.
Power team. Really enjoyed this. Glad we have both you and media like Novara to bring this excellent analysis to the people. Keep it up please. We need this.
So wealth and power has to become even more concentrated in order for there to be a large enough mass of dispossessed people to achieve an overthrow, or we need to somehow increase election turnouts from 65% to 85%. This is pretty bleak stuff.
Overthrow of our right wing tory government
@@fredatlas4396 we've got the same exact issue in the US, enough people have to get hungry and then it happens, not before, hopefully politicaly active lefties can prevent that. The capitalists are too greedy and removed to prevent it, just a matter of when.
As a proper MMT stan I'm sad to see Grace flinch at the discussion, but I also think that unlike a lot of MMT's critics she highlights the right question.
MMTers *do* think about power relations, for instance part of the reason they want to break the link between taxation and spending is that it removes the unearned power that rich people exert over production and legislation. Many also say that one of the purposes of taxation is precisely to reduce the power of the rich: Bill Mitchell often says "I want to tax the rich out of existence".
And that's why it's the right question. Focusing on power shows the places where the left actually can take a lot from how MMT frames things: there is more that links the left and MMT than the discussion often accepts.
If we didn't have taxes how could we fund public services. And we have a very good example with the tories who have been running this country since 2010, a fact that a lot of people conveniently overlook for one reason or another. And it's clear their ideology and policies don't work, they cut funding for all public services, NHS, police, infrastructure, welfare etc etc. So they can use that money to give tax cuts to big corporate businesses and the wealthy. That's why the economy and public services were already in a mess before this corona virus outbreak. It's not sustainable and doesn't work for the majority of people, as we are just getting poorer and struggling to survive while the wealthy get richer. These disgusting polititions should try living on a minimum wage, and without their expenses payments as well. The mark of a civilised society is their welfare system, which under the tories is being destroyed, I'm sure you can understand that, which means we are not living in a civilised society any more or a democracy thanks to the tory party and their backers
@@fredatlas4396
If the government didn’t spend money into the economy, how would the private sector get the money it pays in taxes?
Also, just as a matter of mechanism, the state doesn’t check the account marked “taxes” before it spends. It just spends and decides later what to do with the liability that generates. So seeing as it doesn’t take the money out of the pile marked “taxes” where exactly does the money come from?
Outstanding!
Clear and incredibly insightful discussion, thank you both! All we need now is for The Bastani Factor to be on EVERY Tuesday night :)
When workers get payed higher wages that boosts the economy, because its mostly the working classes who spend money, the wealthy are more and more saving their money into investments and defined contribution pension schemes in the hope of retiring earlier maybe. Rich people are often extremely careful with their money
@Daniel Clark Clark that's the problem we need to be saving for our retirement when we are younger, so the investments have time to grow, but most people especially under tory government's don't have enough money to save for retirement. You think they say someone in their twenties needs to be saving 20% of their gross income into a pension scheme for 40 yrs who can afford to do that only the wealthy. And the main problem is workers used to have defined benefit pension schemes so it wasn't a problem. But since most companies if not all have scraped those schemes because they don't want to pay for it, now we're screwed unless your lucky enough to have a high payed job
very knowledgeable. Excellent work my dudes
I like that Bastani is legitimately trying to get answers out of Blakeley, it means that he pushes a lot harder than someone who is just trying to promote a book
Brilliant interview! Thank you.
Really interesting! Thanks :)
This is all fine but lets get the strategies and practices in place now to transition beyond capitalism and the institutional structures through which it continually reproduces itself.
I was thinking a cooperatively-run public transport organisation (buses mainly) / managed & owned by the workers
@@nnnnsaakadamanas218 That's a good start. But we don't need to let transport get sucked back into Government control. A bus organization in which every employee has a %dividend and in which the workers vote on who the management team will be and what %dividend they can be awarded. So instead of fucking workers around, management become servants to workers.
@@charliebridges3584 you should watch Michael Moore's video I think it is called capitalism the love affair, of course it's about the US, but it's still relevant to other countries. He talks about an alternative to capitalist run businesses. Co ops just like you were suggesting, I'm sure you would find it very interesting
That's one super smart woman!
interest rates have NO say on cost of borrowing for the consumer or for corporations from banks. Interest rates are low now, but as a consumer the credit cards are still high at 12+% interest rates in the USA.
Great interview with egos of interviewer and interviewee firmly under control so information could flow and reach audience.
MMT acknowledges all this Grace.
What a star!
The End of Free Market Capitalism. We have never ever had Free Market Capitalism, bailouts are not capitalism.Bailouts are socialism...Bailouts 1987,2001,2008,2020 and more to come....
Proposing a long-form interview/discussion on the various constitutional crises facing the United Kingdom or specifically the likelihood of Scottish secession from the UK
The Gate on the audio is awful. need to sort out your acoustics in the room.
bloody audiophiles are everywhere
It would be so useful if NM could create an economic explainer series from a socialist perspective going from the absolute basics up to higher level stuff. I think the left really needs something like this so people can engage with these ideas whatever level they come in at. Most intro to economics video series are very much capitalist centred. Have a look at the “crash course” series on economics (cheesy, american, capital centred but a useful learning method for the digital age) Meadway & Blakely would be excellent for this! Especially now students won’t have access to “anti capitalist” material in schools lol
Aaron is a cuteness overload. I love him.
The noise gate on the audio is way too fierce; makes it unpleasant to listen to.
brilliant
I want to know how corona will affect the production of triangular spicy treats.
Will someone write a book about it?
It doesn't have to be long, just as long as it's not just filler.
Corina ... Or a hard Brexit ?
Lollington
Anybody know what Grace's problem is with MMT? I can't quite make out what she said. Thanks.
Yes I would like to know that to
Same. They just breezed over it
If big companies/asset holders can borrow at 0 percent it is the equivalent of a free bet.
Theoretically you only need to gain a fraction of a percent or a unit of profit to end up making a profit.
I put a quid on it Meeeehhhhhh..
Put a few billion on it - result!!
Basically - 1bn at a 3% increase is 30 million quid.
My Penny shares on at a quid was not worth the effort of paying for the stamp for the letter or the electricity of using the internet.
The main thing for the big boys ( they are always boys ) is the SPQR effect.
Small Profits - Quick Returns but a small profit if you have a billion as a stake is a miles better return than betting a thousand pounds.
The irony is ( and I like abet ) is that if the government gave me a stake every Saturday to have a bet or bets on the horses there is no guarantee that I will win.
I may be crap at betting on the horse no matter what I think I know.
The Bail Out of 2008 paid the crap bettors stake and the returns as if they had won the bet where instead they were crap bets.
They lost and still won.
Re: State Capitalism.
In the Neo Liberal l world can we really expect the Anti _ Statists to have any clue as to how to use The State as a tool for Economic policy?
40 years of Thatcherite Anti State politics has moulded a set of idiots who have no idea whether the State is the best way of stimulating/saving the economy.
Yet this is what they are doing whether they know it or not in the Covid crisis.
This is not planning or intervention - this is blind panic.
:' The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn will bankrupt the economy '
p.s With interst rates at zero banks will charge on all accounts - increase fees and ratchet up Credit Cards and loan payment.
Interest rates ( retail ) is based on risk.
There s a lot of ' risk' around now.
I feel Bail -ins coming on too.
Cyprus in the Eurozone is a precedent.
Interesting stuff
I still don't understand why a controlled form of deflation FOLLOWING the start of a recession is a bad thing. Especially if QE is being used as a tool by central banks to maintain whichever stock market we're talking about. If people have already lost their jobs and wages have been stagnant or at the most their pay increases have always been under the rate of inflation *except for politicians, TV personalities and various executives, then a bit of deflation in consumer prices would be good.
I get what your saying but it looks like things that everybody has to pay for like water, energy council tax etc etc have been going up way above pay rises. So how has this helped ordinary people who don't get payed enough. If stock markets go up that mostly just helps the wealthy people, as most people don't have money or enough money to invest
@@fredatlas4396 That's my point - if consumer prices for utilities as well as goods went down due to deflation whilst the state helped with maintaining current wage levels then, the companies might take a short term hit to their finances and the share prices might drop, but then that would help both the common worker as well as the investor which will mean consumer spending would increase as well as more investment in a bull market. Everybody wins in the long run.
All of: less purchasing power, falling wages, deferred purchasing decisions and higher debt
@@mpkend Yeah I know that is the default definition of what happens in a recession from Economics 101 and Keynesian old-think, but if the state is able to maintain some of the wage levels through various 'furlough' schemes around the wealthier parts of the world during these Covid times then why couldn't they do something similar if and when we return to a semblance of normality? If they could maintain wage levels whilst consumer prices dropped then people would logically spend more and thereby help fund an immediate recovery. Basically a little state regulation at the right moment in time might produce far better results than blind faith in a neo-liberal free market ideology.
@@conradhart3881 I think I get where your coming from, but we've been in one of the longest bull markets in recorded history since 2009. And yet the UK economy hasn't been growing, not going anywhere. The wealthy have been getting richer and the rest of us poorer. We had a chance to put Jeremy Corbyn in charge in December 2019,but it appears a lot of people voted against their own best interests and the countries interest as a whole. We need to re nationalise water, energy and the railways. Germany has publicly owned services, but the polititions don't run them, they're run by private management. But because there's no shareholders or fat cat directors to pay they can be provided much more cheaply and prices to the customers kept low, unlike what the tories promised in the 1980's when they said privatising public services would give us better service and prices kept down because of the market competition. But what's happened in reality is prices have been going up way above inflation and the service provided hasn't got any better, in fact it appears in many cases the service is much worse just look at the railways and all the delays, trains not running on time or sometimes at all
Those states that have there own viable currency or are in control or have significant influence of a currency will recover on a macro level. The US, UK, China, Germany will recover but Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Eastern Europe and most of the rest of the world will take another hit as austerity is forced upon them. Korea and most of Asia are exceptions.
Sound wasn’t too good, I’m afraid.
Keep listening. I Had the same experience, almost stopped the video because it was giving me a headache, but the subject is too interesting so I kept on listening and the sound was fixed about 15 mins in!
@@hansschutz398 Thanks for the tip!
`State Monopoly Capitalism' comes from Lenin, iirc.
Anyone know in which Ellin Meskins Wood book she describes what Grace was talking about?
Well is it?
Pay attention.
Any chance of getting subtitles for this? (Grace is amazing but she speaks so rapidly...)
Subs appeared overnight! THANKS!!!
So basically quantitative easing after the 2008 crash creates money that is flowed straight back to the top of the pyramid...creating more crashes because no one has money and therefore unable to compete with big corporations. Maybe Quantitative easing money should have been directed into funding small startups that could compete with these corporations in the long term by creating renewables for example.
stream starts at 1:38
We need to try free market capitalism before we can evaluate whether it works or not. It is not a "free market" when corporations and banks get subsidies and "bailed" out every time they fail.
When did such a thing exist?
Free market never existed in the 1st place. It's like perfect vacuum in physics... it's hypothetical but not possible in reality. For as long as there were markets there were also elements that actively worked on making it not free.
This woman is toxic.
Smearing capitolism is not the way to make a point.
Capitolism brought the US out of very bad times.
Isnt it clear that the reason, Amazon, Facebook and Tesco are doing so well is cause they are online?!! With Tesco being a supermarket, they do offer a low budget range at basement prices as a standard, continous on all grocery and food areas. Allowing for the poorer to do a shop. And anyone to economise.
I would say that facebook now permitting a marketplace, is infringing on other huge platforms, and in this case like there may be others needs someone to run a line through these huge companies, shpock for example shares sellers with this new addition, which i dont want to go to, but also i think infringes on the seller's arena, in running the line that a giant cannot trangress past it's functional ability i.e social platform. It further isnt the fault of these services, like Amazon, with its completely instant delivery or Facebook with online interaction suddenly becoming the main way to interact, its just their provided functions are optimised at this time, with the virus closing all avenues.
It took advantage of the regulatory environment in which it paid little to no tax. The power it accumulates allows it to swallow up smaller rivals and dictate terms and conditions to its minnows leading to further quasi-monopoly power. It has hollowed out high streets, which are important social spaces. Smaller traders lose autonomy and eventually have to trade on terms dictated by Amazon. Even free market advocates don't often make a case for monopoly power. Attention has been drawn to the conditions of people who work for Amazon in terms of unionisation, pay and conditions. It is also cementing a system of hyper-consumerism in which milions of people buy billions of unnecessary things. This is damaging to environmental protections both here and in developing countries. It empowers consumers, but has many deficits in terms of social and environmental protections.
If Capitalism is over does that mean that Norvara will be nationalized and its assets and staff absorbed into the BBC?
One can hope.
What is wrong with the audio
too much limiting/compression.
Start of Resource Based Economy?
if this means a return to feudalism, then I would prefer capitalism
So now the privately educated sons and daughters of wealth lecture the working class on whats good for them and we pretend its socialism. Whatever happened to socialism being the self-organisation of the working class ? This lot will be the next Living Marxism-we can watch their rightward slide as they join the commentariat. Might be nice to hear a working class voice once in a while instead of vocal fry. What kind of watch is that, Grace?
Sounds like you've got a considerable chip on your shoulder and don't like people who are smarter than you are. Why not listen to what she is saying rather than make such a lame attempt to attack the person?
I'll happy carry the chip on my shoulder. The left has lost any audience with the class it claims to represent because it has drawn its ranks from a here today, job in the city tomorrow student constituency and has lost any clue about what working class people care about. In the process it has also lost any capacity to bring about any real change. We have gone from an active left that once had the capacity to organise mass rent strikes to one that is incapable of stopping a single eviction on any estate. The middle class left is a product of defeat but it's also an obstacle to the reformation of any working class movement in the future. Your implication that I should shut up and listen to my betters is symptomatic of the end result ( strange kind of socialism that tells working class man to be quiet and know his place. ) I'd still love to know what kind of watch shes wearing. You're the kind of twats who sneer at the consumerism of the working class when they see someone in a knock-off Balmain t-shirt so, you know, just curious...
@@nickmoss8558 When you are calling people 'twats', it is no longer a discussion.
And you, having told me to shut up and listen to my privately educated betters, now want to talk about moderation and respect!! My problem is this :- we need to rebuild a working class movement capable of changing the basis of social and economic power. The socialist movement though is colonised by people who have no skin in the game. That fact in itself is a major deterrent for most working class people. Blakeley is saying nothing new. She is recycling stuff she's read while doing her PhD - Pettifor, Mandel, David Harvey. My point is that she's symptomatic of a left that has lost any organic link with the working class but isn't troubled by that fact. As per Corbyn- we were told Momentum was going to be a social movement. It had no social weight at all. it ended up being the enthusiastic chair stackers for Campaign group MPs. I don't doubt your sincerity ( I do doubt Blakeleys likely long term commitment to the labour movement) but do you not think that as a socialist there's something problematic about your first response to me being to tell me to shut up and learn from people you presume are better educated than me?
@@nickmoss8558 There is no point in talking about 'building movements' and fighting as cantankerously as possible with the other people who belong to them. That isn't the way forward.
"do you not think that as a socialist there's something problematic about your first response to me being to tell me to shut up and learn from people you presume are better educated than me?"
I may have misread your original post, as most people who get angry about leftists being too 'middle class' - whatever that means - are squarely on the right of politics. It is a favourite jibe from the Richard Littlejohns of this world. I wouldn't have guessed from what you said in the first instance that you were not a Tory/right winger/Labour right winger trolling.
I don't think anyone would deny that the left is not strong overall and that it is no longer deeply embedded in the working class/trades unions movements of yore. However, the 'middle class' leftism of Corbyn did very well amongst the working age population - actual workers as opposed to retired people who identify as working class, yet who are often owner occupiers and relatively comfortably off.
As for Grace Blakely, she is a superb communicator and synthesiser of ideas. In terms of recycling, that is what 99% of us do, including most authors and academics. Asking for originality is setting the bar very high and I don't think it is a claim I have seen GB making. I don't see any reason to accuse her of bad faith.
Lousy sound. This is basic stuff. Hard to listen to.
I agree, it sounds like a limiter is being hit too hard.
It makes zero sense. Why do these people think that a description of the way the system works is a critique of it? Obviously there are "all sorts of subsidies these big companies get" and then there's monetary theory. Debt is not a "power relation," urgh
report to congress this month recommends breaking up the tech monopolies.
Having a report is one thing but actually taking action is a whole different ball game.
Interesting. She's talking about what's happening, and he's confused about why. There's an assumption that there's smart people in charge that understand their own self interest. That's never been the case.
Bastani looks superimposed lol
She has amazing skin
Literally nothing changed and the market is soaring! Shes so wrong, she should be fired
Why is sound of Aron so broken?
Sounds like they've got a compressor on the mics to control the audio level, and the feed to it is too hot, so it's pumping - you can hear the attack of the compressor as it kicks in again after each short gap in the audio
It's really heart warming to hear that the Conservatives will have a permanent majority.
Until the inevitable backlash.
She needs to stop saying ‘right’ at the end of every other sentence, it undermines all the intelligent work she’s clearly got in her.
End of free market capitalism, GB will be finally able to establish prices on lobsters so all the UK citizens will be able to afford them! Lobsters for all
Lobsters? I'd settle for fish 'n' chips if it didn't cost £10 now! (It used to be 2 bob.)
@@geoffreynhill2833 Lobster and chips for a fiver is what they are suggesting now my friend, I can not wait!!
if you are stonking rich andlook at London property prices, you think: What a shit investment. I get 3.3% yield (annual rent income vs price of property). But if interest rates have been lowered to 0.5%, you think: Wow, 3.3%. That is shit loads more than i get for bonds or cash. That and the singal from govt and central banks tat we will always help property prices rise explains the relationship between cutting rates and asset prices. Those LEftists that support ever lower interest rates are mugs or charlatans
So quiet here
lots of treble in mics
39:00
She's absolutely bloody gorgeous. Ooooooooooooough😜
Calm down
Relax, buddy...just take your pills.
Scherzando Karasu hope she sees this bro
Ms Blakeley seems nice and smart but unfortunately she seems though take the presumptions of the “Enlightenment” economically as fundamental truth. Economic centralization as new to capitalism or authoritarianism is antithetical to libertarian marginalist theory because they cry endlessly about “the policy of force”. She clearly has wide breadth of “King’s List” knowledge on Econ but she is lacking in “Proletarian Economics” depth
Fuckin hope so.
Grace you lost me when you said the fake thank you for having me.. vote Blair
7
Absolutely not. Alternatives to markets have been tried but all have failed, disastrously. Saying that Hitler, Stalin and Mao didn't do it right is nonsense; their tyranny is intrinsic to the system. Socialism cannot work because economies are too complex for the flexibility and freedom to be done by anything other than the spontaneous organisation of evolution [a market economy is evolutionary]. Second, Marx was wrong in his own lifetime because average wages and population tripled between his birth and death [but he ignored this incovenient truth]. And, he didn't know this, economic growth was zero for 20000 years until 1800 then took off and hasn't stopped since, and probably never will. Finally, millions of people cannot form a government so they have representatives that then become totalitarians and that is far, far too attractive to despots and demagogues who [would] exploit woolly minded idealists [like Blakely] and chaos, which never happens in free market economies [socialism has been tried in market economies such as post-war UK and Sweden but they were also disasters and no-on wants a repeat] and were such a failure in Soviet Russia, etc that, in desperstion, socialists have turned to wokism which project is so incoherent, self contradictory and impractical that it too is bound to fail.
You are right that we have a pseudo socialist government now but it will not last. The US and UK governments know socialism cannot work in the long term and the crisis and brexit will be used to make the economy even more a market.
Assets [and those who have and control it] are growing as a proportion of the economy as technological development becomes the key driver of the economy whixh is profoundlt deflaitonary so we will have massive QE. This is indeed a massive problem unfolding but socialism is not the answer for the reasons above. What is special about markets is that they spontaneously adapt.
@Dave Newton what are you on about
Have you not read the first pages of the Communist Manifesto? Marx and Engels wax lyrical on the fantastic achievements of capitalism. But their answer to the question, 'is capitalism a wonderful way to lift people out of poverty and give them freedom?' is both YAY and NAY.
Have you ever thought of writing a book?
@Dave Newton
I like the rain. It's nice
"Growth was zero for 20000 years until 1800 then took off and hasn't stopped since, and probably never will." First, what happend just before 21,800 years ago? Is that the last time there was growth before 1800? (Sumerians, Egyptians, Romans, ancient China, etc..?) As for the 1800 acceleration, that was thanks to fossil fuels and the invention of steam locomotion. Also, you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet.
How can there be an end to something which hasn't existed yet? Nobody's ever had free market capitalism, only state-supported capitalism. A totally free market would have collapsed a long time ago.