This was posted by French podcaster, Lucas Langlois on Linkedin yesterday:
One of the problems we face when dealing with issues around economics and accounting is that people treat things as fact. And the fact is, there is no such thing as fact in these areas.
The very first episode of the new Pallas Podcast is live!
Why should you listen to it? I brought together some of the most extraordinary guests from across the globe, including researchers, entrepreneurs, and journalists, to explore the key to unlocking critical thinking and discovering the truth.
In this first episode, I had the privilege to chat with the remarkable Richard Murphy. He is a Professor of Accounting Practice at the prestigious Sheffield University Management School and a passionate advocate for economic justice. He created major standards for the OECD, is one of the most influential accountants on Twitter, and is frequently featured on national newspapers and radio to discuss economic policies. He also hosts his podcast, aptly named "The Account".
In our 20-minute talk, he gave terrific insights into truth in the accounting practice, critical thinking, and his own experience of being wrong. You can listen to the episode right here - https://lnkd.in/eneZKUbF
The structure of the interview was a little odd - with five fixed questions being posed in advance, but I hope the result is interesting.
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Recently, I have seen several climate change predictions going round the internet regarding human behaviour and markets. There are still a lot of people who advocate carbon tax as the only ‘factual’ and ‘realistic’ solution.
They seem to be in denial about what economics is really about. They ignore that we have carbon price mechanisms already. Carbon capture has been around for a decade. So far they haven’t delivered. Why should I expect them to do so in the future?
Carbon tax is massively regressive
And there is no carbon market – it is completely false
Like carbon capture and storage, this is a supposed market soloution to a situatiin without a market solution
I would argue that there are facts in economics, it is just that they are difficult to identify.
There are many economic indicators: inflation rates, national debt, tax rates, etc, all of which are facts, if we know how they are defined. But there are also many examples of received wisdom, that which we often assume are fact, but are not, and economics is full of them.
The “national debt is a debt”, is not a fact, and is indeed very misleading.
Austerity controls inflation, is not a fact, and indeed has (no exaggeration) killed hundreds of thousands.
Trickle-down economics, is not a fact, and indeed, has no evidence to support it.
And so on. I can recommend “The Microeconomics Anti-Textbook (2021)” who says that much of economics “is a myth”.
But the inflation rate and national are all based on massive assumptions
I don’t think anything comes down to being a fact in these subjects, including most especially money
Even those things you claim are facts are entirely dependent on how they are measured. E.g. inflation. We forever hear people talking of “current inflation”, but the method of measurement means it’s not current, it’s average historic inflation over the past 12 months. Inflation “now” is usually very different, but is almost impossible to measure at a point in time.
I feel I must correct M.Langlois. Richard Murphy is THE most influential accountant on Twitter. And that’s a fact.
PS. Good name he has (no relation) .
You paint a rather impenetrable picture of reality Richard. What to make of this?
By this rubric, life has not been better – when it has.
The NHS has never been any good – but it has.
That there has never been greed – when there has been greed and a system to enable it too.
That’s confusing for a start.
Perhaps what you are saying is that reality at the moment is driven by fictional accounts of how markets work, what tax does and how money is created. Sure – I can get that.
I can also get why wealth sees the public sector and tax as negative facts that are disputable. But let us remember that the rich are outnumbered.
I thought for a minute you were having a Larry Elliott moment:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/14/covid-inquiry-eat-out-to-help-out-rishi-sunak-lockdown-economy-society
I suppose it’s not about being wrong or right.
Society’s problem today is not having the opportunity to prove that that you are one or the other. And the lying that goes on to undermine the opportunities too.
The addiction to orthodoxy is what you seem to be talking about and a reluctance to try new things – or more pointedly – not going back to what actually worked.
Today I heard for example that NHS dentistry had finished forever and that it was ‘too expensive’ to bring back to as it was. But it was OK to bail out the private banking system and its incompetence in 2008 apparently.
No truths? I find myself beguiled beyond measure……………………………..
Yours good naturedly,
PSR
I am simply saying the Cartesian view that everything is our perception is the only truth we can rely on. It is post-enlightenment to claim otherwise, I think, but that would also be pre-enlightenment thinking too.
I will look up ‘Cartesian.’
You might make a polymath out of me yet!!!
BTW, if you run into Larry at all, could ask him what he is on?
I’m rapidly losing patience with him to be honest.
Ok, on both counts
think we’re on slippery ground when we say there are no such things as facts
there are FACTS and there are interpretations of facts
Baroness Mone was not lying to the media . she was just interpreting her reality.
BUT for every debit there’s a corresponding credit.
There is
But it’s a decision as to what it is
And double entry is only a convention