Showing posts with label UK and Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK and Economics. Show all posts
09 December 2014
Dianne Abbott MP: London's Economic Growth - 08 December 2014
Source: mass emailing
London's Economic Growth
London's Economic Growth
I would like to inform you that last Friday, on 05/12/2014 I secured a Parliamentary adjournment debate to discuss the issue of London's economic growth and challenge Kris Hopkins MP, the Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on the current Government's record.
My speech on the motion covered four areas that greatly affect London's economic development.
Primarily, I highlighted the arguments for further devolution of financial powers to London. In comparison to London's global competitors such as Tokyo or New York, London enjoys only a fragment of the ability to raise its own revenue streams. Currently London and the other great English cities have to compete for grants from central government which is slow, bureaucratic and inefficient. If London were given greater control over its own finances and tax revenue we would be able to meet gaps in infrastructural investment and bring decision making closer to the ground in a system that would be more democratic and accountable.
Linked to this I highlighted the years of a lack of infrastructural investment which has meant that the city's transport network, energy, and water supply faces increasing challenges in the coming years in response to a population that is expected to exceed ten million by 2030. If London can be expected to continue to grow economically addressing the infrastructure issue is a vital one.
The second half of my speech focused on the importance of countering the current pervasive anti immigrant narrative and recognising the important economic contribution immigrants have and will continue to make to London's prosperity.
Finally, my arguments closed on the importance of sustainable and fair growth. Yes, we can all see London's growing economic prosperity, but excluding the very wealthy elite, many Londoners are being left behind by spiraling housing costs and price of living. If London is to continue to be a leading global city, tackling inequality must remain the number one priority for any incoming Mayor of London.
If you would like to see my full speech during the debate, please follow the link below:
Adjournment Debate- Economic Growth in London
Thank you once again for getting in touch with me on this important issue. If you would like to find out more about the work I do in Parliament and in the constituency, please visit www.dianeabbott.org.uk You can also find me on Twitter @Hackneyabbott or on Facebook www.facebook.com/Dianeabbott
Yours sincerely,
Diane's Website
Diane Abbott MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
20 January 2014
Class Centre for Labour and Social Studies: Britain’s monetary system, like our sanitation system, is a public good by Ann Pettifor
Source: http://classonline.org.uk/blog/item/britains-monetary-system-like-our-sanitation-system-is-a-public-good
Like many others I flinched with embarrassment when the Chancellor visited China. George Osborne sublimated his dislike of Marxist-Leninism and democratic centralism, and effectively bowed before the Communist government of China. That did not bother me as much as his portrayal of Britain as “second-rate” and so impoverished as to need to turn to Chinese investors for finance. He needed reminding: China is a country with very large numbers of poor, financially insecure people – far poorer than the people of Britain.
By luring Chinese investment into Britain the Chancellor implies that Britain “has no money” to maintain and develop its own future energy needs. We are too poor it seems, to even invest in our own housing needs.
So the Chinese government has obliged via a state-owned company, Greenland Holdings Group. A valuable site in Wandsworth was acquired for £600 million by the Chinese who plan to build hundreds of homes and some shops on the site. To top that, they plan to add a cultural touch and build a museum for the poor (sic) people of Wandsworth.
It seems too there is no money to plough into Britain’s future energy supplies. So Secretary of State for Energy, Edward Davey flogged off a nuclear power station to French and Chinese state-owned corporations – and offered British taxpayer-funded subsidies to sweeten the deal.
And now a French company which according to Greenpeace, can’t frack in their own country because the French government has stopped the French countryside being ripped up, have turned their sights on the UK countryside where "the UK government seem happy to allow the industrialisation of our green and pleasant land."
All this because our politicians wrongly believe “there is no money” to finance society’s needs, and in particular the transformation of our economy away from fossil fuels.
As I note in a new e-book: Just Money - in a well-managed financial system, money provides the stimulus, the finance needed for innovation, for production and for job creation. In a well- managed economy, money is invested in productive, not speculative economic activity. In a stable system, economic activity (investment, employment) generates profits, wages and income that can be used for repayment of the original credit.
There are many constraints on the ‘production’ of this social construct that we call credit or money, and they include inflation on the one hand, and deflation on the other. When the private banking system is not managed, commercial bankers can create more money than can usefully be employed. This can lead to too much credit or money chasing too few goods, services or assets. Equally, as now, the private banking system can contract the amount of credit created, deflating activity and employment. But if the private banking sector is properly managed by public authorities there need never be a shortage of finance for sound productive activity.
Free market economists solemnly believe that money is “gold coin and bullion” to quote Murray N Rothbard; that credit is just a “surrogate for gold”; that bankers are mere intermediaries between savers and borrowers, and market forces alone can manage, discipline and regulate the supply and exchange of money.
Politicians like George Osborne believe – or pretend to believe - that in order to generate the finance needed for investment, Britain first has to mobilise “savings” – cut spending to release new money. Secondly, that it is not possible to raise finance except by taxation.
The creation by central bankers of trillions of dollars of ‘bailout’ finance via a process defined as ‘quantitative easing’ reminded wider society of the power central bankers have, to create credit “out of thin air”. Yet it is a power that the Bank of England, for example, has exercised since its founding in 1694.
Because our politicians have so little understanding of how the monetary system operates; because they insist on framing the public finances in terms of kitchen table economics, they pretend that we are poor; and agree to the sell-off of some of Britain’s most treasured assets and capabilities. They have done so at considerable future cost to the British people.
This wrecking of our economy, and of Britain’s future prospects will continue until we the people gain a better understanding of the monetary and financial system – and demand of our politicians that the public good that is our financial system must be used – just as our sanitation system is used - in the interests of society as a whole, not just private wealth.
You can download a PDF copy of Ann Pettifor's new e-book, Just Money, by clicking here.
Britain’s monetary system, like our sanitation system, is a public good
Like many others I flinched with embarrassment when the Chancellor visited China. George Osborne sublimated his dislike of Marxist-Leninism and democratic centralism, and effectively bowed before the Communist government of China. That did not bother me as much as his portrayal of Britain as “second-rate” and so impoverished as to need to turn to Chinese investors for finance. He needed reminding: China is a country with very large numbers of poor, financially insecure people – far poorer than the people of Britain.
By luring Chinese investment into Britain the Chancellor implies that Britain “has no money” to maintain and develop its own future energy needs. We are too poor it seems, to even invest in our own housing needs.
So the Chinese government has obliged via a state-owned company, Greenland Holdings Group. A valuable site in Wandsworth was acquired for £600 million by the Chinese who plan to build hundreds of homes and some shops on the site. To top that, they plan to add a cultural touch and build a museum for the poor (sic) people of Wandsworth.
It seems too there is no money to plough into Britain’s future energy supplies. So Secretary of State for Energy, Edward Davey flogged off a nuclear power station to French and Chinese state-owned corporations – and offered British taxpayer-funded subsidies to sweeten the deal.
And now a French company which according to Greenpeace, can’t frack in their own country because the French government has stopped the French countryside being ripped up, have turned their sights on the UK countryside where "the UK government seem happy to allow the industrialisation of our green and pleasant land."
All this because our politicians wrongly believe “there is no money” to finance society’s needs, and in particular the transformation of our economy away from fossil fuels.
As I note in a new e-book: Just Money - in a well-managed financial system, money provides the stimulus, the finance needed for innovation, for production and for job creation. In a well- managed economy, money is invested in productive, not speculative economic activity. In a stable system, economic activity (investment, employment) generates profits, wages and income that can be used for repayment of the original credit.
There are many constraints on the ‘production’ of this social construct that we call credit or money, and they include inflation on the one hand, and deflation on the other. When the private banking system is not managed, commercial bankers can create more money than can usefully be employed. This can lead to too much credit or money chasing too few goods, services or assets. Equally, as now, the private banking system can contract the amount of credit created, deflating activity and employment. But if the private banking sector is properly managed by public authorities there need never be a shortage of finance for sound productive activity.
Free market economists solemnly believe that money is “gold coin and bullion” to quote Murray N Rothbard; that credit is just a “surrogate for gold”; that bankers are mere intermediaries between savers and borrowers, and market forces alone can manage, discipline and regulate the supply and exchange of money.
Politicians like George Osborne believe – or pretend to believe - that in order to generate the finance needed for investment, Britain first has to mobilise “savings” – cut spending to release new money. Secondly, that it is not possible to raise finance except by taxation.
The creation by central bankers of trillions of dollars of ‘bailout’ finance via a process defined as ‘quantitative easing’ reminded wider society of the power central bankers have, to create credit “out of thin air”. Yet it is a power that the Bank of England, for example, has exercised since its founding in 1694.
Because our politicians have so little understanding of how the monetary system operates; because they insist on framing the public finances in terms of kitchen table economics, they pretend that we are poor; and agree to the sell-off of some of Britain’s most treasured assets and capabilities. They have done so at considerable future cost to the British people.
This wrecking of our economy, and of Britain’s future prospects will continue until we the people gain a better understanding of the monetary and financial system – and demand of our politicians that the public good that is our financial system must be used – just as our sanitation system is used - in the interests of society as a whole, not just private wealth.
You can download a PDF copy of Ann Pettifor's new e-book, Just Money, by clicking here.
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