January 7th, 2010
 7th January 2010,
Read Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith’s letter on why Iceland must NOT repay the debt in the FT today:
” Sir, The president of Iceland’s refusal to approve repayment to the British and Dutch governments should be welcomed (January 5). The pause gives the Anglo-Dutch governments an opportunity to withdraw their demand for full repayment from the government of Iceland, a country whose population at 317,000 is somewhat smaller than Leicester’s.
The UK and the Netherlands, with a combined population of 76m, should cease to use economic force majeure on a tiny country, and accept the principle of co-responsibility for the crisis. Repayment of the nationalised losses of a private bank amounts to €12,000 per Icelandic citizen, and will inevitably impact harshly on their lives and public services. By contrast the cost to Dutch and British taxpayers of the bail-out will be about €50 per capita.
We understand the strong desire of the present government of Iceland to restore the country’s tattered reputation.
But anyone reading the financial press in 2007 and 2008 (as opposed to the academic reports commissioned by Iceland’s chamber of commerce) would have known that Iceland’s banks were far from risk-free. That was why British and Dutch depositors enjoyed good rates of return on their deposits.
The British and Dutch governments have sound political reasons for protecting small savers lured into shark-infested financial waters. What is unjust is that the tiny population of Iceland should be forced to bear the full costs of the laxity of Icelandic, British and Dutch regulators and the reckless behaviour of private bankers and risk-takers. “
Read the letter on the FT website here.
September 25th, 2009
Ann Pettifor: September 24, 2009
As world leaders meet in Pittsburgh and then Istanbul (for the World Bank and IMF meetings) expect much self-congratulation and back-slapping for having got the world through the post-Lehman crisis.
But behind the cacophony of self-praise, watch out for three alarms flashing red:
- The escalating foreclosure and rising mortgage delinquency rates in the US
- The dramatic contraction of credit in the US over the summer – putting paid to any hope of the US acting as the ‘engine’ of a global recovery
- That big accident waiting to happen to the European economies –Spain
With the help of a great new book – about to be published in the US – let’s take a look at why there is no room for complacency.
“No way to run an economy” (Pluto Press, 2009) is by a man whose research and analyses I have come to respect and rely upon – Graham Turner of GFC economics. While the book is full of solid facts and data – it is eminently readable for those prepared to unleash their inner wonk.
Continue reading… ›
September 2nd, 2009
The Motley Fool, September 2nd, 2009
Motley Fool blogger TMF Sinchiruna spotlights the Times interview, describing me as “once ridiculed, later vindicated…” TMF Sinchiruna goes on to say: “Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, Niall Fergusson, Ann Pettifor … these are the voices that I believe investors need to hear. Turn off the tv and look deep into the events of last year and consider for yourselves whether anything more than a hail-mary reflationary maelstrom has been heaped upon the fire that started it all.”
Read the Motley Fool article >
Also just did an interview for You and Yours on Radio 4 which was broadcast Wednesday. You can listen to it here.
September 1st, 2009
Article Published in the Times, September 1st 2009. Photo by Jon Enoch.
Ann Pettifor predicted a painful end to the good times. Now she says that only radical action can prevent further gloom
Phil Thornton
Ann Pettifor is a member of a select club — the seers who saw it all coming. Now the economist, who predicted the credit crunch as far back as 2003, believes that the worst is yet to come unless there is radical reform of the financial system.
Six years ago she parodied the International Monetary Fund’s annual economic forecast with her own — The Real World Economic Outlook. Then, in 2006, her book The Coming First World Debt Crisis, warned that rich countries were heading for a debt crisis that would overshadow anything seen in the developing world. Both were ridiculed.
With the British and world economies languishing in the worst recession since the Great Depression and with once-mighty banks reliant on government life support, she could be forgiven for being a little smug. Not a bit of it: “No, being Cassandra is not something I wish for. I hate this role of being a gloomer and doomer, as I’m an optimist by nature. But I am very pessimistic now.”
Continue reading… ›
August 20th, 2009
From The Ecologist: August 17th
They emptied the public purse to fund their continuing largesse. Now it’s time for the banks to pay us back. At phenomenally good rates…
Read the Ecologist article >
Download the Green New Deal here >
August 18th, 2009
 From Open Democracy: August 13, 2009
“A single day, 9 August 2007, will go down in history as ‘Debtonation Day’ – the beginning of the end of the deregulation and privatisation of finance that marks the era of globalisation.”
I wrote these words on 13 August 2007, in anticipation that the great stock-market collapse of four days earlier presaged the end of the era of neo-liberal globalisation.
So it has proved.
Read Open Democracy article>
June 19th, 2009
De Standaard: Brussels 18th June, 2009.
Interview:Ann Pettifor over de ‘Green New Deal’ — BRUSSEL -
De westerse overheden moeten dringend de hand aan de ploeg slaan en de almacht van de financiële sector inperken. Dat vindt Ann Pettifor, econome en activiste.
Van onze redacteur
Weg met de banken, leve de overheid. Als je het gedachtegoed van Ann Pettifor in zeven woorden zou moeten samenvatten, zou het ongeveer zo klinken. Pettifor is het meest bekend als drijvende kracht achter Jubilee 2000, de campagne om de schulden van de ontwikkelingslanden grotendeels kwijt te schelden. Een campagne die een succesvolle apotheose kreeg toen de G8 in 1999 besloot om 100 miljard dollar van deze schulden af te schrijven. Nu werkt Pettifor, die al in 2003 in het boek ‘The Credit Crunch’ waarschuwde voor de komende kredietcrisis , voor de Londense denktank New Economics Foundation. Die heeft het rapport ‘AGreen New Deal’ uitgegeven. De titel verwijst naar de New Deal waarmee president Roosevelt de crisis van de jaren30 aanpakte. De daadkracht en voortvarendheid van toen is nu schrijnend afwezig, vindt ze. Pettifor was deze week op uitnodiging van het tijdschrift Mo* in Brussel om haar plan toe te lichten, en erover in debat te gaan met VBO-voorzitter Thomas Leysen
Continue reading… ›
June 11th, 2009
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?
Continue reading… ›
May 13th, 2009
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.
Continue reading… ›
March 17th, 2009
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.
Continue reading… ›
|
In the September 2003 edition of openDemocracy I wrote:
Click here to read the full story in openDemocracy
BOOKS:
|
