2025 has been an extraordinary year for this channel. 30 million views. Hundreds of thousands of new subscribers. And, more importantly, a growing appetite for something better than the economics and politics we are offered today.

In this video, I pause to reflect on what we've learned—and, crucially, how that shapes what comes next. I explain why an economics of care matters, why poverty and climate breakdown are choices rather than inevitabilities, and how a better understanding of money, tax and the role of the state can change what is politically possible.

I also set out how this channel and the Funding the Future blog will evolve in 2026, including more explanatory material, new short-form content, and ways you can help shape what we do next.

If you want an economy that works for life rather than extraction, this is an invitation to join that journey.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

2025 has been a remarkable year for this channel.

I've talked about the politics of care.

I've talked about how we need   to get our heads around the way in which the economy really works.

And now 2026 is almost upon us, and it's time to pause and reflect.

But reflection only matters if it informs what comes next, and so what I want to talk about is where we are going and how you might come with us on a journey into a new form of politics, a new form of economics, a new form of discussion, which I think is going to be critical if we are going to get through 2026 and see a brighter future.

I usually avoid talking about this channel itself. There are bigger and more important issues to discuss most of the time, but moments of transition like this do justify reflection, and the end of 2025 is one of those moments of transition. This channel and the associated  Funding the Future blog exist for a reason. They exist to explain   that better economic choices are possible.

Particularly in the UK, this is true because we have more options available to us than we are told. And one of the reasons why I make these videos is to point out that simple fact and to explain what those other options are. Orthodox economics exists to deny us these choices. I challenge it so that we might have them available.

And that is key. What I believe is possible are things like full employment. It's not a fantasy. If we truly understand how money works in our economy and how tax works in our economy, and how politics could work in our economy, then full employment is possible. But at the moment,  one in twenty people is out of work by deliberate choice, nearly one in ten young people is out of work by deliberate government choice, and there are many   more who are working in jobs which, frankly, do not provide fulfilment or a sufficient level of pay to those who are doing them.

All of this results in poverty, and that is not inevitable. And that again is one of the other points for having this channel. I argue that we do not need people living in poverty in a  country which is probably the sixth richest in the world.

I also argue that the climate catastrophe is avoidable. We don't need to be sinking into oblivion, and   yet the way we are going, that's our possible fate.

And in all of this, my point is that well-being could be deliberately enhanced if only our politicians decided to do it, but right now, far too many people are feeling that, well, life is pretty shitty, let's be blunt.

When saying all this, I don't preach socialism. I'm not in a very real sense a socialist because I think there are more important things than just who owns the means of production.

I certainly don't preach neoliberal capitalism because I don't believe in it. I think it causes harm.

I reject both these ideologies in the sense that they can both cause harm by imposing political will on people and denying them freedom.

What I want are systems that aren't designed to extract from people, but which sustain well-being.

I believe, in other words, in an economy that works for life, where the state underpins well-being without a doubt, which is why I talk about the importance of everything to do with government and what it can do for us, but where markets could also, and should also, create opportunity and  not just chances for exploitation, which is too often what they do at present. That   is why, in combination, I talk about these two working together to provide freedom grounded in security, and I believe that this is possible, but we aren't getting it.

The state, as currently structured, fails to care by choice. It imposes austerity rather than delivers well-being.

Markets, as currently structured, are there to extract value from too many of us. I'm not talking about the local shop that you might go to. I'm not talking about the local builder or decorator or whoever else might be of fundamental value to your well-being. I'm talking about those large companies, the banks, the supermarkets, the utility companies, all those others who basically charge you excessive fees to generate excessive profits, to provide excessive returns to people who are already most likely wealthy. That is where the exploitation is. That's because they focus upon financial outcomes over human ones, and both government and business must change in this sense; both must change because something better is possible.

Around 30 million views on this YouTube channel in 2025 indicated that there are a lot of people who are looking for something better.

At the start of the year, we had  fewer than 100,000 subscribers. At the end of it, we've got over 300,000, and we produced a video every day.   In fact, some days we produce more than one, and many of you watched all the way through, and thank you for that. Some of those videos were viewed more than a million times, and tens of thousands of you voted in many of our polls.

I'm astonished by how engaged people are here. And also, and I'll be honest about this, how kind the comments are on YouTube. I didn't expect that when we relaunched this channel. But, by and large, all this story about vile trolling does not seem to apply that much to what I'm doing here, and I'm very grateful for that.

There is disagreement, and that's good. We allow for it in our polls. We allow for it in the comments. There's no desire to create an echo chamber here, because why do I make these videos? Well, partly because I want to learn, I'm not here just to talk about what I know, although that obviously does sometimes inform it - I've had a lifetime of learning - but I'm also here to be challenged just as much as I hope I challenge you, and that's quite critical because unless I'm challenged, we don't change our thinking, reiterate what we're doing, and come up with something better.

That's also why I write  the Funding the Future blog. Now, I know that the world divides between those who seem to like to view   YouTubes and those who seem to want to read something, and that's reflected in the audiences that we have, where there seems to be little spillover between the two,   but there were around 10 million views on that blog this year, and if you   are looking for deeper content that provides more understanding and depth of analysis than I can possibly do in a YouTube, then that's the place to go. There's a link down below, and there is every day a link down below because the transcripts of every video do go on to the blog, along with around four other posts a day, on average.

The growth in understanding is what matters, and that's what we are trying to do.

Better understanding of how money works is my goal.

Better understanding of tax and its purpose is my goal.

Better understanding of opportunity is what I'm seeking to achieve.

I believe that there is a growing interest in an economics of care, which puts people before profit.

So, the question now is, what can we do better in 2026? It's been great to do this in 2025, and in a year which was, in many ways, really quite tough, I've enjoyed this opportunity to share videos with so many people.

But how do we do better in 2026?

How do we reach more people?

How do we explain more clearly?

How do we engage more deeply?

And how do we help create real change?

There will still be a video every day. There will be multiple blog posts, I suspect, every day because that's just the way I am. And we will continue to ask you for your opinions in polls and through audience engagement.

One change will be, I'm expecting to create more explanatory and educational material and to provide perhaps a bit less commentary on current politics. One of the ways in which we will do that is by taking on what we are calling the short-form challenge. We know that there is a need to  deliver short-form content for YouTube, but also for Instagram, TikTok and other platforms as well. That's   a weakness we need to address because so far we haven't cracked it. The team here are looking at how to do this. It's not my natural style, but I could be taught how to do it, and we will. We're going to produce shorter, punchier and less technical content for those platforms, but without losing the intellectual honesty which characterises the long-form videos that you are used to here.

These two will go together, and you can help. You could like those videos when you see them. You could share them and push them out. That really helps on YouTube and other platforms because if you push them out, YouTube and others will think, "People are watching this. They like the content. Therefore, more people should be having it put in front of them," and that works. If you could do that, we'd be really grateful.

There are other ways you can engage with us as well. On 28th of February, we're going to have our  first-ever live Funding the Future event. It's going to be held in Cambridge, and it's a trial.   If it works, we will do more around the country. Tickets are still available, I'm told. We are selling well, but we haven't sold out, so please come along if you can. There's a link down below. We've tried to keep the prices as reasonable as we can, given that we've got to hire venues, pay people, and everything else.

But there are other ways as well. On the blog, there's something we call  our PDF Shop, and we put on there critical documents that we produce that we think will explain in more depth some of the ideas we're exploring on this channel.   The next thing we're planning to bring out is an explanation of modern monetary theory. It's not going to be short because there are so many questions that people ask about it, but that's the whole point. It's there as an in-depth resource so that you can get your head around it and dip into it, and it will be, as all those resources are free.

You can make a donation if you wish, and we don't mind getting donations - this channel does cost money to run, and it's quite a significant sum now because, well, some of us are depending upon it for our livings. I'm partly retired, but I'm still earning a living as well, and the point is, yeah, if you want to help, that's great, thank you very much, but the resources will always be free, so you can share them with whoever you want. And that is key, because all of this is about creating a new political economy and that involves everyone.

Everyone needs to have a political economy grounded in care and not in financial extraction.

We all need to avoid the risk of environmental destruction, and those are the things that motivate me.

I could have retired. I chose not to because I believe a better world is possible, and I believe that people need to know what that better world is. I've got ideas, and I want to share them. That's what 2026 will still be about.

The global economy remains fragile.

Politics remains dishonest.

Climate risk is intensifying.

And care remains marginalised.

Whilst that's the case, I will be talking about all those issues because I think we can do better.

To help us achieve that, join us in 2026. Help shape what we do. Let us have your comments, tell us what you want covered and let's keep building an economics of care.

There is plenty of opportunity down below this video to leave your comments to tell us what you want for 2026. Please do. I haven't put up a poll. I'm just asking you, what do you want? We will read your observations, comments, and any criticisms, and together let's hope we have a Happy New Year.

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