Thomas and I were talking together about videos yesterday, and what we might make some on.
I had some ideas, but they are all a bit long, and we think we need some shorter ones to create some balance.
So, imagine you could ask a question that I could answer in five minutes or so. What would that be? Suggestions are welcome. We are genuinely looking for ideas.
I offer no guarantee that we will make anything, mind you, but everything will be considered.
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Buy me a coffee!
Count me out because in all honesty I think you do enough already.
But I need ideas!
Why cannot (or will not) the UK government (Westminster not real estate developers) just go out and build 500,000 housing units next year for first tome home buyers or downsizers with “Buy-to-Let” totally excluded and prohibited in the new developments?.
The USA dose so it so why cannot the UK do it too?
I believe Attlee did this or something close.
We need social housing with security of tenure.
We could buy existing properties to achieve that.
We could build many more.
You’ve had plenty from me, I’m a self-opening pinata of frustrations questions etc.
I think however that our transport systems need looking at in greater detail. You and I are both fond of railways and other public transport – the environmental and financial costs of cars are off the charts and need exposing.
So I ask the question what’s the point of 1.5 ton EVs?
How do we create good jobs for all our young people that give them independence and good career paths?
On my agenda…
@Carlton Greener
Training dear boy! Training!
The cost of Net Zero?
We hear a lot about it BUT most of our capital goods will have to be replaced by then eg my Gas Boiler, two cars, many buildings most of our current train and bus fleet etc etc
Plus of course there are savings in terms of maintenance by using electric as opposed to petrol or diesel engined equipment.
I appreciate that you might put it in the category marked ‘too difficult’ and/or hate me forever
Will anyone watch it?
Let me think about it
Renewables are cheap.
Therefore net zero is the cheapest way forward.
Discuss.
Why do markets price the risk of default for the US government higher than for Greece?
(59bp for US, 58bp for Greece)
Probably not the sort of question you were expecting…. but an interesting snippet of financial news.
I like it?
Send me the data…
1. Why the miltiplier effect can make investment in UK infrastructure cost free.
2. Do the annual inflation figures currently used mean anything for ordinary people?
3. Why didn’t Liverpool get a free kick against Crystal Palace on Saturday when the Palace keeper handled outside the box?
That last one may be a little too long for your format. 😉
Wasn’t that Man City?
🙂
Email sent.
Thanks
I can see it
How could a progressive Chancellor (should we ever manage to elect one) protect/insulate the UK economy against a concerted attempt (by the very wealthy forces that have so much influence right now), to collapse it?
I like it…
Could you do a gap analysis of the Code of Conduct for MPs?
Interesting…
1. Can you (can anyone) estimate with some degree of accuracy how much revenue Westminster receives from Scotland and how much we get back? The last part is possibly easier.
2. How often does an international treaty have to be broken before it can be rescinded by the aggrieved party?
Two suggestions is being a bit greedy and you are a busy man so …
Thanks
Andy
🙂
How should the ‘Left’ unify and what should we call ourselves?
Thanks
I will muse on that
And/or… which party best represents the Left?
Well it sure as s*** isn’t Liebore is it? (Sorry!)
A broad outline of the main components (to fit inside 5 minutes) of a sensible economic/fiscal/monetary policy for a progressive UK government. I know this is a potentially massive topic, but I think a short summary would be useful.
I will definitely think about that
In your book ‘the Joy of Tax’ you included your fantasy Chancellor’s budget speech – a 2025 version of that, maybe to coincide with the Autumn Budget?
It was at least an hour long…
And possibly followed by a series of short summaries giving a little more detail on each of those main components.
A variant on Clive’s suggestion, the USA is a sovereign national with a fiat currency why the fear of a default? Ignoring Trump.
Should the BBC television service be scrapped/privatised?
Should UK academy schools be taken back into state control?
Why can’t we stop the tech bros sprouting utter, futuristic bollocks?
How do we stop the tech bros taking over the functions of the state?
If the tech bros want my data what is the problem of paying me + making sure that I get a share of future profits?
I like some of them
“If the tech bros want my data what is the problem of paying me + making sure that I get a share of future profits?”
– could/should there be some sort of U.K. ngo/public body that the government couldn’t privatise (maybe every individual would have one equal share or something), that would own and control data centres and the data stored in them? Corporations/government could get functional, limited access but would not own/be able to move data but may be able to purchase a licence to aggregate data for new products or services or something?
Read the following comment recently (can’t remember where). ‘We are told that it’s billionaires that are making us poor, so how come we are better off now than we were before there were any billionaires’ I was intrigued by the comment because in one sense it’s true. In the early 20th. Century people worked for a pittance while some folk became incredibly wealthy (though not Billionaires, which I’m guessing inflation has largely created), e.g. coal miners compared to the landowners with coal mining rights under their estates. Lord John Lampton of County Durham was one example, whose Wikipedia entry I recently had cause to read. He was apparently nicknamed ‘Jog along Jack’ due to his response to a journalist who in 1840 asked how much one needed to lead a comfortable life. Lord Lampton’s response was that he thought one could ‘Jog along nicely on £40000 a year’, probably about £40million in today’s money!
My simplistic answer as to why we are better off despite Billionaires would be Governments, for all their failings have greatly improved wealth redistribution. Worth a video?
Would we be better off without billionaires? Is that a fair summary?
And yes, I would add the government element in
What does Scotland, its people, and in particular the Independence supporting political parties, need to do to achieve their goal?
In 5 minutes?
5 minutes? It’s really simple, which is not to say that it would be at all easy. The answer is time – the demographic conveyor belt is working against the Unionists and in favour of the Nationalists. Opionion polling is now routinely over 50% for Indy; in ten years or so, that’ll be between 55% and 60%.
How do you sustain an apperently democratic union when over half the Scottish population wants out?
Even the repellent Gove has admitted recently that Indyref2 is probably inevitable.
I made a comment recently about the erosion of our ‘social glue’ by neoliberalism (‘there’s no such thing as society’ – well take out the safety net and make you all blame each other). How do we grow that sense of society?
There’s clearly an economic policy side to this, which you would address excellently. Maybe it is an opportunity for readers to briefly brief us on initiatives they know of – some have been mentioned here, like the Frome Model of Enhanced Primary Care, like Incredible Edible, maybe credit unions. A reference page of these (maybe some regular contributors could check that they fit the criteria) would be a great resource.
I’m thinking about what might make people feel safe and secure, which they could demand from politicians, and all the good things that are happening word-of-mouth in communities which give people heart and purpose.
I don’t usually read the comments on your videos, but did for the birthrate one, they were heartbreaking. Thank you for tackling this issue with your usual sensitivity and intellect – one braces oneself before reading what lies beneath most headlines concerning falling birth rates.
Thanks
Might an early intro to socio-economics for school children/students be worth considering?
Ditto debt?
It seems that they are most unlikely to receive such important info at school.
That will be a challenge in 5 minutes!
I will think about it
Lots of diagrams? Cater for most learning styles and get more across in the time? Would be a great resource, getting across the point that government spending is not like household spending…
Just not my style
I shpuld ask those whose style it is – but time is not on my side right now
I am also trying to write a book outline and do other things
Richard
Can Neoliberalism/capitalism survive in its present form? Maybe a bit long for 5 minutes but salient points/factors.
The challenge is to find a way to it in 5.
It’s pretty clear that the days of real economic growth are behind us and the future requires us to learn how to do less with less. For example, my Department at the University of Edinburgh (Informatics) is responding to austerity in the sector with a Campaign for Simplification. It’s basically a recognition there will be fewer real resources to educate students and do research, so we need to figure out how to reduce complexity (overhead) so as much as possible can continue to be done. Eg fewer courses each with more students, and less assessment. More focussed research with smaller teams. This trend is exactly in the opposite direction of the past m, where the assumption has always been that we’re looking for new innovative ways to do more with more. This requires a complete turnaround in thinking and training. Could you discuss how we might embed “less with less” into society-wide planning in a way that the less well off / educated do not shoulder most of the burden?
I very much like that.
I will be thinking about that, a lot.
how mmt works in the EU ,,, or not
Wouldbe helpful in understanding how its ptinciples could be applied to our biggest trading block please
The Eu and mmt
The top story to come out is that the 50 biggest families own over 50% of wealth. Of course the 50% is an estimate. My own feelings are that it is actually worse than that. We are in a culture where data is king and the data is incredibly unreliable. Are these families too big to fail? Are they not gambling with the nation? Thoughts.
Why we should not be concerned if a few wealthily people (or their representatives) say they will leave the country if they are taxed more. Perhaps we should even celebrate the opportunities their leaving will give to others who are here?
I like it…
The overwhelming issue – is how to the clean the stable – our politics is corrupt from top to bottom with Labour Tory and |Reform bought and sold. Until this is done we are no longer a democracy.
Apparently there is a minister for democracy – Rushanara Ali
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-03-06/debates/BA868148-19EE-4A1C-9161-E6BAE9296EAA/PoliticalFinanceRules
The Huffington Post has recently commented.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-mps-its-time-to-clean-up-political-donation-rules_uk_67dc5000e4b034ade1e83476
…..”Unfortunately, the UK’s political finance rules, designed to block foreign donations and dirty money from seeping into political parties, are ripe for abuse and riddled with loopholes.
This means that hostile state actors, oligarchs and international billionaires are easily able to sidestep the rule book and funnel money into a political party via UK-registered shell companies.
As it stands, a British company is permitted to donate to a political party using money raised overseas, even if the company has not generated sufficient funds to support the donation…….”
There are other parts of the constitution that need spelling out – independent bodies like NHS BBC etc have to be open – the right expertise running them and open competition for their top management and to politically corrupted as they now often are.
Thanks
“There are other parts of the constitution that need spelling out”
Does the UK need a written constitution?
Yes
Why do turkeys vote for Christmas?
Not a sarcastic question, basically why do people vote for parties whose policies will do them harm.
Interesting
It’s the politics of resentment – even though they might know their party’s policies might hurt them, they believe they’ll hurt/alienate supporters of the other side more. See: Brexit, Trump.
It’s a fascinating question and one that often seems just out of reach. Following on from Richards Post about linear and non linear thinking I have been watching some of Dr Iain McGilchrists videos. I think you will find an answer to your question there.
I plan to watch some.
“Mr Connolly had been a Tory West Northamptonshire district councillor but lost his seat in May. He remains on the town council.”
How can an English person hold two elected offices at one time? Is this not a conflict of interest? Should this be barred from happening?
It is too commonplace in a system where too few come forward to stand for office. So, it is tolerated.
Exactly what rule compels the UK govt to match its “deficit” with bond issuance? What is its legal status, and could the UK rescind it unilaterally?
Noted.
Thanks.
How can the influence of the Toxic Tory Tabloids be limited?
Can a property tax be a surrogate for a wealth tax? If we taxed property at 1 or 2% per year could we not get rid of Council Tax & Stamp Duty? Would such a tax re-balance the housing market?
I have been there before, but it is a perrenial.
You want to answer a question in five minutes? Well I’ve got one! How do I protect my investments from autocracy? For decades, I’ve been putting my money in index funds and leaving them be. Now, I’m not so sure. Maybe I should hide in cash? Why? Well, I could see stock and bond markets crashing. What are you doing with your money? Can you tackle this in five minutes?
Probably not….
But I will think about it
How does an inheritance/ estate tax influence peoples behaviour- does a wealthy person spend more on consumption rather than productivity investment or saving? Is this a problem?
Does an inheritance tax also require a gift tax? Can gift taxes be efficiently implemented or does the pooling of family income and assets make it tricky?
Short videos are great to get people started on your content. The first video I clicked on was a 3 min video “All money is made up”.
Thanks
What I can’t work out is if sovereign governments in charge of their currencies can create all the money they need, subject to inflation, what is it that stops the poorer countries from doing this to meet their needs.
Easy – because no one will accept it, from the World Bank onwards.
They have to do so.
What I’m struggling with is this.
It makes sense to me that the UK government doesn’t have to earn taxes to spend. Instead it issues money in its currency and then takes money back through taxes to control inflation.
Say the UK needs hospitals or roads, the choice to borrow or not is political. The UK can simply create the money if it needs to.
By my understanding, the UK does not need the world bank or anyone else to accept this.
Does the same apply to a less wealthy country with its own currency or not?
Yes, because they will almost invariably need to import to invest. Currency convertability matters, then. As it also does here.
How do we successfully explode the myth of “balancing the budget”?
Ways to promote employee co-operatives (with ironclad rule ensuring that if the organisation were taken over, proceeds of sale would not go to employees but to a designated charity; so, no incentive to sell out) – tax concessions, subsidised loan/ government funding to facilitate the setting up of such co-ops and the employee buyout of existing companies?
Such co-ops could not be taken over and asset stripped by often overseas predatory finance.
Should we pay people when they have children?
In Australia we have Family Tax Benefit which is a direct payment based on the number of children you have.
It is means tested and in my opinion tapers off and cuts out at around the median household income.
Should a payment for families with children exist? Should it be means tested? What level should the taper and cut off be?
Who convinced Starmer he is a Labour man? A bigger sleight of hand than even Keyser Söze coukd imagine.
Hi Richard,
Reposted on here as suggested:
So, from what you have told us on this website Richard is to follow the money.
What explicitly happens when things crash? I’m old enough to remember for example the 2008 run on Northern Rock and the subsequent austerity that we are all currently living through. House prices fell and mortgagees left in negative equity.
My then Civil Service wages were dumbed down to average under 1% for the next decade. But I was already far below the average salary with credit card debts and no savings. So a run on banks (which will get bailed out. So any small amount of savings stays there unaffected?
So a stock market value crash impacts personal pensions for example. My wife and I are nearing sixty so her personal one will be affected. That I understand.
How will the average poor household with no savings or personal pensions and renting be affected?
I suppose these questions are along the lines of your other post , what questions would you like answered but this comment is relating to the upcoming crash , which affects us all.
Who loses most? Middle class families with mortgages? Trying to follow the money but a crash means winners as well as losers.
Thanks
1. 50 years ago, the salary of just one person in a couple was needed to buy a house.
Today, many couples can not afford to buy a house.
Aren’t they working hard enough?
2. 70 years ago, after World War II, the country was effectively broke.
Yet it was able to start the welfare state, including the NHS, nationalise the railways, and start building 4.5 million homes (80% affordable housing).
What is preventing the government from doing the same today?
3. Corbyn got more votes that Starmer.
So who has given the government its mandate?
I like…
Is the BBC impartial and fit for purpose?
Is there any mainstream media that is impartial and fit for purpose?
Russian media is frequently labelled as State Controlled and unreliable, how does that British media compare?
Controversial!
What are the essential economic characteristics for Scotland or Wales or N. Ireland to become viable sovereign countries.
An independence question, partly based on the Welsh Green Party supporting independence, with greater involvement in Europe. Ideally not adopting the Euro.
Noted.
I asked.
And I have got!
When times are good for the banking sector they seem to put pressure on the government that benefits banks, but are not hood for most folk.
Yet these banks rely on us when things go wrong. You expect things to go wrong again as regulations are again relaxed…. So, when things next go wrong, and banks look for help, what conditions should be applied to reduce their ability to harm the UK in future?
Could these be done without a bank failure?
The Question/answers dynamics would also be much changed if it was part of an interview.
There are many influencers, ex-politicians, economists, wanna-bes, who could be asked gently about the perceived wisdom, especially the foundations of their beliefs, whereupon I suspect they will unravel.
This is true. But that breaks the short take requirement. We are not ruling it out though.
Thomas may appear on screen…
Talk about how things will change when the Boomers die off, the things that will change that we don’t even realise. They get a lot of flak from younger generations, but I was thinking about it whilst wandering around a wargaming convention at the weekend, looking at the hundreds of hours that these, mostly, senior citizens had put into their gaming and display tables, along with all the other things their generation do that youngsters don’t. Small businesses like backstreet garages, small fabrication companies, independent DIY stores will all be gone. They are the people with the time and resources to repair old trains, cars, and keep WW2 planes flying. Will enough Millennials and Gen Z have the will or the skill to keep these little things going? My generation doesn’t have the time, money, or space to do these unnecessary but brilliant things. Perhaps that’s not really an economic topic, though.
My suspicion is that a new generation of retirees will come along.
But, they might have differemt interests. Some preserved railways will not survive, especially the longer ones, I suspect.
On similar lines – what happens when the current generation of OAPs who were able to retire at 60 and then do a considerable amount of free childcare for the grandchildren is replaced by obese, unhealthy OAPs retiring at 67 + with no energy left to care for grandchildren?
1. Does the regulatory requirement that banks have funds equally any new loans they make, effectively stop them from making new money when they create loans? (is this even true?).
Did the fact (is it a fact?) that this happened at the same time as austerity, create a double-whammy of decreased money-supply?
2. Is there such a thing as a reverse-multiplier-effect? I.e. if the government reduces spending (either in real terms or relative to population size) in a sector with a high multiplier-effect, will tax revenues shrink by a greater amount?
1 is not the case. That is not how reserve requirements work.
2 is worth looking at
I suppose that leads onto another (better?) question: how does the banks ability to create new money when they issue loans interact with their statutory reserve requirements?
Noted
How have your predictions over the last 5/10 years turned out?
Why?
You have talked about the need for immigration into the UK
How about something looking at it from a global perspective given that most other nations are also going through the demographic transition and how we can make it all work at a global level
I read an article by the journalist Gwyn Dyer suggesting that there will come a point where the developed world will essentially be bidding on immigrants. The anti immigration rhetoric is just pantomime.
For your American viewers, and the rest of us: The United States has lost all credibility in claiming to be the leader of the free world. The rest of the world views the US as a failed state.
There is a need, in my opinion, for all politicians to think about and justify their decisions and their political views based on much longer timescales than we currently see; (decisions/views only seem to have a time horizon of the end of the current Parliament). Some examples:-
I would like to see at least 10-20 year projections. Obviously this would be about finances, but it ought to also discuss the effects of the UK’s population demographics and all that follows from the changes, for example.
Climate change will see our coastline altering, creating many problems and issues. We need to know what actions (other than coping with sudden flooding, for example) that the government are planning for. For example, Climate Central have a great tool for looking at land that will be below sea-level at https://coastal.climatecentral.org/map/8/1.4864/52.9998/?theme=sea_level_rise&map_type=year&basemap=roadmap&contiguous=true&elevation_model=best_available&forecast_year=2050&pathway=ssp3rcp70&percentile=p50&refresh=true&return_level=return_level_1&rl_model=coast_rp&slr_model=ipcc_2021_med
What should the UK be doing to survive supply chain shocks, particularly where food and drugs are concerned; this really shouldn’t just be left to the markets to decide for us. Governments should be planning to provide certainty for the population.
I hope this helps ….. and thanks for all you do to educate us.
Thanks
What chance is there of any improvement in the lives of people in the UK without regulating the market until capital serves the people and not profit?
Thanks
I have two questions I’ve wondered about, and feel under equipped to answer myself:
1/ Growth agnostic society (doughnut economics etc): How can you fund increasing social services costs from a shrinking economy, particularly in a world of reuse and unpaid work?
2/ AI: In a world where wealth is created without workers how can you best ensure all have access to what they need, not just the few who control the ‘wealth generation’?
Challenging!
Thanks
Immediately the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 they started big infrastructure works. How did they finance them?
Effectively, MMT
Why has the government not reversed austerity? The economic paper that drove wordlwide government austerity policies after 2008 (Growth in a time of debt, Reinhardt and Rogoff) has been debunked. It is clear that high debt levels INCREASE economic growth so why have successive parliaments not been better advised?
Thanks
What are the ideal sources of finance for new businesses and businesses that want to expand. And what would the proportion of the total might each source look like. This is to counter the argument that millionaires and billionaires should pay little tax because it is only through them that the country will prosper. I would like to be able to talk about this in any discussions I might have with people who are arguing for the billionaires.
Thanks
Here are a few ideas:
1. How to transition to MMT
2. Economic advantages of devolved government
3. If we were to rejoin, the advantages of joining the Eurozone
4.Could the € become the world’s reserve currency. What would it mean?
5. Universal Basic Income – has its time come?
6. Reform of the financial sector. What needs addressed and what would be the benefits?
7. Should the big four banks be broken up? Should our banking sector be more like Germany’s?
Enough?
Noted!