New figures from the Progressive Economy Forum show that poorest households will still be paying half their income in energy bills under government price guarantee. Shocking new figures, released today by the Progressive Economy Forum, show that the poorest households in Britain will still be left paying almost half (47%) their disposable income in energy […]
New PEF Research Shows Energy Price Guarantee Failure Read More »
PEF is looking to expand its work over the coming year, as we move out of the first phase of the pandemic and seek to learn the lessons from the covid. Across the world, the demand for new approaches to the economy are growing, and PEF wants to help shape that debate in the UK.
This article traces the history of ‘crowding out’, and its use as a justification for austerity and state deflation from its origins in the 1920s to its latest post-2010 incarnation. It examines why governments have kept turning to austerity and continue to justify it on the grounds that public sector activity crowds out more productive private activity, despite the accumulated evidence that this traditional pro-market formulation has failed to deliver its stated goals. It examines three other embedded forms of crowding out that have been highly damaging—leading to weakened social resilience and more fragile economies—but which have been ignored by both governments and mainstream political economists.
Rethinking ‘Crowding Out’ and the Return of ‘Private Affluence and Public Squalor’ Read More »
After a decade of austerity and the trauma of a two-year long pandemic, the UK’s public sector workers deserved some respite come 2022. Instead, they are now enduring the largest real wage cuts in recent history.
The advent of military Keynesianism is a warning against complacency about the moral superiority of the West in defending Ukrainian democracy.
The War in Ukraine and the Revival of Military Keynesianism Read More »
As we reach the year’s end, we wanted to look back on a dramatic year that has seen economic turmoil here and across the globe, and the dramatic return of inflation to levels unknown for decades. Through it all, the Progressive Economy Forum has argued for evidence-based, progressive economic policy that can cut against the
The Progressive Economy Forum in 2022 Read More »
Guy Standing argues for the revival of the commons of the sea. Current policies result in over fishing , pollution and ongoing privatisation of rights that we currently own in common.
He calls for the end of auctions by Crown Estate of billions of square miles of sea bed to multi-national companies.
Labour must Revive the Blue Commons Read More »
New research, published today by the Progressive Economy Forum, shows that the widely- reported £50bn “hole” in the public finances, is the result of government accountancy rules and highly uncertain forecasts, not tax or spending decisions. Using official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility, economists Dr Jo Michell and Dr Rob Calvert Jump show
The Dangerous Fiction of the “Fiscal Black Hole” Read More »
Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson outline a plan for a new progressive government to tackle inequality
Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson: Spirit Level Lessons Read More »
The omni-shambles of Liz Truss was more than an ideological experiment backfiring. It was the culmination of 12 years of ineptitude, marked by the weakly opposed fleecing of the social fabric through austerity, and forty years during which rentier capitalism has become entrenched. While Rishi Sunak will delight his friends in the financial markets, the
Progressives should embrace Eco-Fiscal Policy: a Commons Capital Fund Read More »
A detailed report in the Financial Times this morning lays out the options being considered by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his likely Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, ahead of the fiscal statement on October 31. Aside from a hint that Sunak may want to move the date – unlikely, given the close match between PM,
The Sunak/Hunt plan to ensnare Labour? Read More »
