Ann Pettifor – 11th June 2009 – For the Guardian Online.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/12/recession-economic-crisis

A banker, Alan Clarke of BNP Paribas, citing a NIESR report, confidently tells the Guardian that the recession is over. Should we take the word of any banker – especially one that claims to be an economist – seriously?

Given that the economics profession was blind-sided by the ‘debtonation’ of 9th August, 2007, I am deeply sceptical. Second, given that this is a banker-induced recession; that reckless and often fraudulent behaviour by bankers led to a loss of $60 trillion of yours and my wealth (in the form of pensions, equities, lost interest on savings, and lost income from job losses) last year, should we believe a banker’s particular spin on the crisis?

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Ann Pettifor – 12th May 2009

Have just returned from a flying visit to Iceland, where I was mightily impressed by the warmth and strength of the Icelandic character. Also struck by the pride Icelanders have in the way the financial crisis deepened and strengthened their democracy – leading to the ousting of a corrupt government, and the election of a progressive coalition.

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Debtonation Readers: This is the full version of my latest blog for Huffington Post:15th March, 2009

Once a-ponzi time, millions worshiped at the feet of the Wizards of Finance.  These Wizards preached an economic religion that promised security and an abundance of riches from the ‘Emerald City’ — Wall St.

Investors following this religion were led to believe that they could make capital gains effortlessly and endlessly.

To make these gains, it was argued, there was no need for protection from the authorities. 401(k) plans were safe in the hands of the Wizards. There was also no need for investors to engage in hard work: to invest in research; to engage more labor; to sweat at making goods or delivering services.

There would be no need to save.  Money would be made effortlessly.

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7th December, 2008

On friday 5th December the Financial Times finally acknowledged that ‘real borrowing costs remain high‘. For those readers that may have missed it let me recap: UK interest rates are now at 2%. The three-month Libor rate (the London inter-bank offer rate – fixed by a committee of the British Bankers Association) has come down from 6% to just under 4%.  Mortgage rates for new borrowing are just under 6%. The cost of borrowing for companies (loans and overdrafts) is at 7%. The yield on UK corporate bonds (BBB) are just under 12%.  Lets hear no more about low rates of interest.

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1st December 2008

Watching our British politicians squabble and spin this last week over the Pre Budget Report – while Rome burns –  was depressing. Why are our politicians so off-beam? Why does their response to this crisis seem so petty and botched?

The answer may lie in their ties to the finance sector. The fact is we are experiencing what will be a prolonged Bankers’ Depression – born in the City of London, not in the US sub-prime market. Neither of our major political parties is willing to admit that; to analyse the crisis in those terms and therefore to lay the blame on the finance sector and to rein it in. They are too compromised.

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Appropos the debate about Keynes below Graham Turner of GFC Economics and author of The Credit Crunch, submitted a fascinating article to the FT on this subject. In it he cites the experience of Japan’s failed attempt to kick-start the economy with public works expenditure in the 1990s.

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24th October, 2008

The NS has published a short piece this week: “Economists simply would not accept that their model could fail“.  An introductory sentence is not mine: “Who would have predicted..that prudent Gordon Brown (would)  breach the EU cap on government spending?” Am writing to the NS to ask for a correction to be published.

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22nd October, 2008.

I am dictating this piece down the phone from Budapest in Hungary where I have just arrived to deliver a lecture to the Ybl Club. My hosts were in a state of shock on arrival because the central bank of Hungary has just raised interest rates from 8.5% to 11.5%…

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The World Tonight, Monday 14th October, 2008, 10.38pm.

The news that Britain’s local authorities may have lost up to a £1 billion in the collapse of Iceland’s banks beggars belief. The competence of their highly paid chief executives must surely be challenged, and powers to borrow on international capital markets curtailed.

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