2024 was an exciting year for me – not least because I decided to retire from everything but thinking and social media related work. That laid the groundwork for 2025.
This is the audio version:
And this is the transcript:
How was 2024 for you? I think it's time to begin that stock-taking that takes place at this time of the year, in this gap between Christmas and New Year, where we think about what was the last year like and what do we want for the year to come. And that's going to be my theme for the videos over the next few days.
Two of those videos, I think, are going to be personal, about what I think 2024 was like for me and what I'm hoping for in 2025, and the other two are going to be 2024 and its politics, and 2025 and what I might expect to happen there, but don't expect a lot of hope.
Let's start with how 2024 worked for me.
I hope it worked for you, and I've got to say, I think it did work for me. But I learned a lot from it.
It was a year where I worked too hard. Quite simply and quite straightforwardly, I doubt if I've ever put so many hours into work during a year before in my whole career. And I'm now 66, and I've worked pretty hard for a very long time.
And the thought came to me as the year progressed that this was getting a bit silly.
I produced some really important things as far as I was concerned. Things that I'm very proud of.
The Taxing Wealth Report came out in April and talked about how we could change our tax system to redistribute both income and wealth in ways that are entirely possible for any government to choose, and which could actually raise nearly £100bn of extra tax revenue for any government and reallocate £100bn of investment funds a year as well. Enough money to be reallocated to achieving the goals of the society that I want. Any government could deliver on that aspiration.
I'm pleased I did that. I'm pleased with the reaction to it.
I'm pleased, too, with other work that I did during the course of the year. The Accounting Streams project, which set out to write a new accounting textbook that did not presume that all accountants work for large multinational companies where profit motivation is the only thing that matters, has now given rise to an online textbook with 17 chapters published and a few more still to come to complete the work.
I'm delighted that that happened. I'm pleased to have worked with Professor Susan Smith and Jenni Rose on this project. We didn't know each other at the start of it. We formed a good team. And I think Accounting Streams has more to do.
I'm delighted with the work that I've done during the course of the year, but which has yet to see the light of day, with the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency based in Washington DC, who are linked to the OECD, the World Bank, and IMF, three organizations that I call the bedrock of international socialism these days, because they are interested in the reallocation of income and wealth to relieve poverty. And that work is all about how tax systems can be designed to achieve that outcome. The work will be published in 2025.
And what else did I do? I did more work on sustainable cost accounting, which is a method of changing the accounts reporting of large multinational companies to show whether or not they are on track to deliver net zero. Will this happen or not? I don't know, but the theory developed by some way in 2024. And again, I hope to see more outcomes from that in 2025.
But all of that was on top of doing two other things. The first was writing my blog, and I've been writing that blog since 2006. So, there's nothing new about that, except that this year there will have been 6.9 million reads of the blog, and there have never been much more than 5 million in a year before.
In fact, this chart, which is now up on the screen, shows just how dramatic the growth has been over the last couple of years. We're on an upward trajectory. Thank you is all I can say to all of those who read it.
And the reason why the blog went so well was because this video channel started, and it seems that people like reading the transcripts of these videos that appear on the blog.
The video channel was relaunched because I did have it during the Covid era, but it was relaunched working with my son who's the other side of the camera right now. Thomas is always present when I'm recording, and he edits all this stuff, and we relaunched it, first of all, just to talk about the Taxing Wealth Report. That was in April.
But we kept going to explore what might happen. We made all the mistakes. There's a story that you have to put out a hundred videos before you work out what to do on YouTube. And I think that's probably right. Please don't watch those we put out in the first three or four months. They're not that good.
But this autumn, I think we began to get things under control, and we knew what we were trying to do. And we got the kit right, broadly speaking, I think.
And we even invested in the black T-shirts that I wear every time I record.
And we got a lot of views. In fact, there will be at least 7.4 million views on this channel during the course of 2024. More, in fact, views on this channel than there are hits on my blog - something I simply could not have imagined when we started.
So again, thank you very much. I really, really appreciate the fact that you have watched these videos.
Why does it matter to me? Because I'm talking about the process of change.
Over the last few days, I've been doing that, talking about what is wrong with economics and the need for a new vision. And over the days to come, I'll be talking about how we want to turn those ideas into some form of reality in the work that we're going to do next year. But it's been exciting to share that journey with other people and see the comments and get the feedback and understand that there are people out there who are anxious for there to be that change in this world. So, I really appreciate the fact that that's happened.
What else has happened? I decided to retire. Now I'm not going to give up work, let's be clear about this. But having reflected on all these things I was doing, I realised that if I really want to create the new vision that I'm talking about I haven't got time to run all the types of projects I've done in the past. So, much as I've enjoyed writing all those reports and working with all those people, I'm going to do less of that in the future.
Formally, I'm leaving Sheffield University at the end of February as a paid professor. They have graciously decided to appoint me as a professor emeritus, which means I keep the title of prof for life, although actually I never use it outside a work environment. And I keep my links with the university as a result, which is, to be candid, very useful because I do draw on its resources.
But what I'm doing is entering the third phase of my career. And I think that's perhaps been the most exciting realisation that I had during 2024.
My first career was me as a chartered accountant. Training and then setting up a firm and supplying services to lots of clients and creating a business and having a partnership, which was fun and exciting, and doing all sorts of work with people to create new employment opportunities, which was always the best bit about creating a business. That was stage one of my career and ended when I was roughly 40.
Stage two of my career was as a campaigner and as a reformer and as an academic, which I was invited to be because of the work I'd done on international political economy. And that has also been exciting, but I think it's coming towards the end of its journey.
I loved coming up with the ideas that underpinned tax justice.
I loved working with John Christensen on those ideas.
And I loved coming up with ideas around the Green New Deal and working with Colin Hines on those ideas.
And of course, many, many others.
But now, it's time to talk about the end of neoliberalism and what comes next. This is the third phase of my career.
And instead of printing stuff, which is what we did 20 years ago, or putting stuff rather tentatively on the web, which is what we also began to do through things like blogs and then using Twitter and so on, this time, I suspect I'm going to be looking down that camera lens or one like it for time to come.
2024 made me realise that I might be officially an old-age pensioner, but there's far too much to do to sit back and take things easily. Stage three of my career is being free of the financial pressures that I inevitably suffered whilst I was trying to build up a home and provide for children who were in my care, and everything else.
But now I want to work to think about the change that we need in our society. if it's going to survive and definitely out-survive me. That's the aim. That's the excitement. And realizing that I could actually make that change was the most exciting part of 2024 in many ways. I'm looking forward to 2025.
Another post on the year in politics will follow, probably tomorrow.
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You should bookmark the url of this post. It’s all you need to reply to the “What have you ever done with your life?” trolls who pop up from the sewer occasionally.
Any MP voting on financial matters who has NOT read your taxing wealth report, is not doing their job properly. You are right to be proud of that.
2023/24 has been a horrible year for my family, for personal reasons. But I’ve also reflected on what has been happening in one of my former professions, now dominated and almost 50% owned by venture capital. Things that were once forbidden to me as unethical, and for which I could be struck off, are now routinely part of professional life. “Partnership” (which prohibited us from hiding behind corporate bankruptcy) has given way to allowing limited companies to practice. Fees have risen, in an unholy alliance with the premiums of the insurance companies whose products purport to protect from such fees. Young practitioners find themselves being bullied into profit-gouging practices that they regard as unethical, but which their own professional body no longer objects to. The joy of vocation which carried students through a long and demanding training has given way to financial slavery.
I suspect many professions have seen this happen, the common villain being the power of corporate vulture finance.
Thanks for asking. Retired 12 years now so no obligations to an employer or company on my horizons each week. As part of my service to society I do form part of a very small team in Scotland who are battering away at a solid wall of obstruction from powers that has meant any groups trying to enjoy the benefits of the COHOUSING model are in permanent planning and hoping mode. None of us here have actually ‘got there’ yet.Contrast with England who have managed to create communities and foster a growing attraction among ordinary folk.
I come to your blog regularly among a few reasons for comfort that we are not alone in fighting Goliaths of volume house-builders who view our homes as financial investments rather than safe havens to dwell and flourish in. Fighting for the attention of politicians. Fighting for scarce funding that gets allocated to more familiar, understandable housing options. All I glean here is grist to my knowledge ‘mill’.
I’m ready to say good bye and good riddance to 2024 in that my flat is in a block where we have endured nine months of noise, disruption and mental upset of having our roof replaced. It has battered me mentally as well as physically. Come February I truly hope peace will be restored.
My hope for 2025 concerning cohousing is that the political will can turn in favour to help us. They have declared a housing crisis. There is an event in the Scottish parliament in January to pull politicians and others together to be faced with this issue. Then may they be ready to listen to solutions not only of buildings, but of our peace and wellbeing enhanced by reduction of loneliness and fear of ageing alone. You should see me wobbling on a step ladder to change an LED light bulb in the batheroom!! I really should not be doing that.
My hope for me is that the post-Covid symptoms of joint pains will die away. I really have aged fast this year. I also long to change my location – as a private renter I find options non-existent. I need a miracle. I do believe miracles happen. I keep searching.
And I DO hope. I DO try to learn new things. I DO find new people to befriend. Lets keep our chins up. And I seem to have gained another one this year.
Good luck
And thanks
I think your vision might suit some people very well
@ Hazel R
For encouragement & possible networking (sorry it’s English)
https://kwmc.org.uk/projects/wecanmake/
In my neighbourhood. I know most of the people in the video and can vouch for the transformative effect of the project.
The same on the whole as yours, a mixture of dealing with reality and dreaming of how different things could be.
🙂
I wrote something similar about episodes of my life and what I thought I’d achieved. I am 11-12 years older than Richard. One of the younger generation remarked it could come in useful for my funeral.
It made me laugh.
I am afraid I encouraged that sort of dark humour while they were growing up.
Very wise.
Thomas often likes to remind me that I need to be nice to him. He thinks it will be his job to choose my care home.
How was my 2024? Whenever I am asked ‘how are you?’, I reply, with a smile, that I am still alive (and I am almost 80). Somewhile ago Richard did a blog on assisted dying and I mentioned my illness of last year – today in the Times is a (front page) headline, part of which reads ‘I looked death in the eyes’, although the person being interviewed went on to state that she was not close to death. Last year I was not expected to live, but 2 lots of lifesaving surgery within the course of 12 days for caecal volvulus (with a few complications), I was (and am) still alive – thank you NHS – even the surgeons were mildly surprised by my survival. This year 3 lots of surgery (none to save my life – just tidying up), and I am still alive. Three or four years ago I was diagnosed with cancerous melanoma – now all clear – thank you NHS and I am still alive. Never have I felt that I looked death in the eyes, nor indeed do I believe it necessary to be have been interviewed by any newspaper about it – I just smile when asked ‘how are you’ and say, gratefully, ‘I am still alive – conclusion being 2024 was a good year.
I feel like that and have not looked death in the eye – or been seriously ill
Every day might be another one closer to death (inevitably) but I am goinmg to enjoy all the ones I have got
I too intend to enjoy as much as possible – only the good die young (according to the Greek historian Herodotus in 445 BC)
And chartered accountants aren’t good?
Personally I think the continuation of the work you have already started on neoliberalism and what could or should come next will be your most important work. Though I doubt it will be immediately understood and appreciated by those whom we need to grasp the nettle, I am absolutely certain that it will be at some point in the not too distant future. Again, personally, I can only see further demagoguery and economic repression resulting if neoliberalism is not replaced by an economics and politics of care and compassion
Thanks
I too looked death in the eyes 10 years ago (bowel cancer) and was/am extremely grateful to the NHS for saving my life. Ten years later I’ve never been so angry. I hated what Thatcher and her crew accomplished, but I was younger then, resilient and never imagined the legacy would be as grotesque as it is today. FOURTEEN years of austerity, the paring back of everything I was fortunate to grow up and which made the country a fairer place for a greater number of people, a Welfare State, Student Grants, Council Housing, a working courts system. OK, much could have been better but we seemed to be on a rising trajectory of hope, though never quite on the climate front. The curse of Neo-liberalism and the failure of the media and politicians to call it out for what it is, exploitation of the majority of people on this earth and the resources of Mother Earth, make me despair and pains me beyond comprehension. So for 2025, I want to lose the anger, it’s pointless. Be less emotional, more rational. Read and learn ie try to remember the arguments I learn on this blog – so I can convince others of the value and truth of Richard’s economic principles. Better still convince the next generation in my family, all in their 30s that they could become influencers in a political sense. I don’t know what the future is for politics in this country – I can’t suggest that they join the Labour Party now – but our young people have to have the confidence to wrest the batons of control from the useless and supine political class that exists at the moment. I don’t know if Richard’s Thomas has suggestions? The world of communication is infinitely more complex than it was in my day and far harder to navigate safely. All I can say is thank you Richard Murphy for your wonderful blog, all you do to make the country a better place and all the very best for 2025 to you, your family and Thomas.
Thanks
And I will ask Thomas – although he usually says it’s my job to talk and his to make it seem as though I make sense.
Thanks for your work Richard. You are definitely sowing the seeds of new economic and political thought that holds the promise of tackling all manner of injustice in our country. Your energy and enthusiasm are inspiring too. I’m struck by the overlap between what you are doing with funding the future and what Robert Reich is doing with his organisation inequality media. I’m sure you know of him and there may be a degree of synergy – some contrasts of course, for example he still argues for a wealth tax. But he’s also thinking about the possibility that a third party is a better alternative than trying to rebuild the democratic party, which like Labour has been colonised by neoliberals.
Best wishes for 2025!
I subscribe to his stuff and watch some of his videos
I appreciate his efforts, although he observes rather than thinks, I often feel.
according to my Father (long gone – or in African terms ‘late’), Chartered Accountants/Auditors stay on the client premises until such time as they have used all excess profits in their fees – true or false?
In my case false
But I have seen it….