Opinion: White Collar Workers, Welcome to the Revolution
by Aaron Bastani
With huge layoffs in finance, tech and journalism, disaffected white collar workers could be about to get radicalised, argues Aaron Bastani.
Tag: finance
Opinion: Maybe Twitter Should Die?
by Moya Lothian-McLean
For those interested in creating a more progressive, equal society, Twitter’s 'demise' would actually be a blessing in disguise.
Downstream: The Plan Is to Make You Permanently Poorer | Aaron Meets Gary Stevenson
In 2011, while working as a City trader, Gary Stevenson joined the ultra rich with a single bonus cheque. Not long after he was named one of Citibank’s highest performing traders worldwide. Stevenson made millions for his employer by betting on one thing: that the British and American economies would fail to recover from the […]
Explainers: The Establishment’s Plan to Deal With Inflation
As inflation rises the establishment has a solution: we all need to get poorer. The alternative is for profits to fall – but that is unacceptable to the powerful. Aaron Bastani on how only unions can save us.
Analysis: Bankers Are Driving the Wheat Price Explosion, Not the War in Ukraine
by Matteo Tiratelli
The war in Ukraine and climate breakdown have been blamed for a wheat price surge that threatens mass starvation. The truth is that financial speculation and grain-hoarding are to blame, writes Matteo Tiratelli.
Downstream: Liberalism Is in Trouble. Aaron Bastani Meets Francis Fukuyama
Few political thinkers exert such an influence that their work becomes synonymous with a historic era. Francis Fukuyama's declaration of "the end of history" after the fall of the Soviet Union made him one. Aaron Bastani speaks to Fukuyama on the publication of his new book, Liberalism and its Discontents.
Downstream: How the Mainstream Media Enabled Climate Denial
Aaron Bastani speaks to George Monbiot about COP26, which countries are climate change leaders and how the mainstream media enabled a culture of climate denial when it mattered most.
Report: OnlyFans’ Ban – and Its Suspension – Shows That Banks Have a Chokehold on Sex Work
by Marin Scarlett
A muddled legal landscape provides the perfect cover for financial institutions to discriminate with impunity, writes Marin Scarlett.
Analysis: What Does the European Super League Furore Tell Us About Modern Capitalism?
by Aaron Bastani
The brief life and early death of the European Super League captured the political possibilities of the coming decade: dissent will emerge from the most unlikely places, governments will involve themselves in ways once unthinkable and a gilded elite will be left increasingly unsure of its footing.
The Bastani Factor: Rishi Sunak Found the Magic Money Tree
After 2010 British politics was shaped by one idea above all others: austerity. We were told that there wasn’t enough money to pay for EMA, university fees, council housing or even the existing range of benefits. And yet the government’s response to Covid-19 demonstrates the extent to which that was a political choice rather than […]
Downstream: Can Capitalism Solve Its Crises? Interview With Mariana Mazzucato
What can the Apollo Missions teach us about dealing with the major crises of the 21st century? And why are politicians so eager to dwell on caricatures of the public rather than engage in problem-solving – from climate change to housing and education? Aaron Bastani speaks to author and academic Mariana Mazzucato to find out.
Analysis: ‘We Don’t Want Socialism’: How WallStreetBets Rejected the Left
by Jack Chadwick
A shared interest in toppling the financial sector doesn't make GameStop-buying Redditors natural allies of the anti-capitalist left - as WallStreetBets users have been quick to point out. Jack Chadwick explains
Novara FM: Capital, Care and Crisis
Emma Dowling joins James Butler to discuss care in the shadow of capital.
The Bastani Factor: The World According to the Economist with Alexander Zevin
Since 1843, The Economist has been the single most devoted and influential champion of liberalism anywhere in the world. But what exactly is liberalism, and what does the output of the Economist tell us about it?
Opinion: Does the Bank of England’s Funny Business Signal a Push for Free-Market ‘Solutions’ to Come?
by James Meadway
Recent interventions by the new governor of the Bank of England have been as unusual as they have been alarming. James Meadway takes a closer look and asks why the governor seems to be feeding the free-market spin machine.
Opinion: From Climate to Jobs, Sunak’s Budget ‘Event’ Falls Short of the Protections We Need
by Grace Blakeley
Unless the government invests in creating millions of new, secure, well-paid green jobs, the ‘recovery’ from the pandemic will be even weaker – if it even comes at all. Grace Blakeley on the chancellor's underwhelming summer statement.
Opinion: The Covid Financial Crisis Will Require a Much Stronger Response Than the Last Crisis
by James Meadway
The coronavirus pandemic is bringing with it a financial crisis on a scale far beyond the crisis of 2008, writes James Meadway, and weathering it requires stronger action than anything we've seen in recent history.
Opinion: Coronavirus Will Expose the Vast Inequality Between the Global North and South
by Grace Blakeley
The coronavirus pandemic has shown that rich countries can spend without limit to meet the needs of their populations. But poorer, less powerful countries quite literally can't afford to play by those rules, argues Grace Blakeley.