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Published on April 13, 2025

PEF conference 2025 – UK Economic policy in the age of Trump SOAS 15.5.25

Patrick Allen

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PEF brings you Progressive Economics 2025, UK economic policy in the age of Trump, for politicians, policymakers, academics, journalists and activists and all who care about the economy to debate UK economic policy and the massive challenges of today. This follows the success of our conferences in 2022 and 2023.

The UK economy is in deep trouble made worse by multiple and avoidable policy mistakes over the last 45 years exacerbated by external shocks . Now the changes to international relations and trade by the Trump government threaten the entire system of global trade.

The government is struggling to overcome the legacy of the coalition and conservative governments and the results of austerity , Covid and Brexit. The economy suffers from low investment and poor growth . Self imposed fiscal rules and election promises limit room for change .This conference will analyse the reasons for our current predicament and suggest policy solutions.

• How should progressive policy meet the challenge of a collapsing world order?

• How can inequality, poverty, and precarity be tackled in this new world?

• Can capitalism be repurposed?

• Should monetary and fiscal policy be reformed?

• Can rentierism be constrained and social protection be revived?

• Should the UK re-align with Europe?

• How should the world respond to tariffs and trade wars?

Sign up to a fascinating day of debate with eminent speakers who include : Patrick Allen, Frances Coppola, Yannis Dafermos, Danny Dorling, Chris Gray, Angus Hanton, Will Hutton, , Richard Kozul-Wright, Stewart Lansley, John McDonnell MP , Alessandra Mezzadri, Jo Michell, Ozlem Onaran, Ann Pettifor, Kate Pickett, Zack Polanski, Jonathan Portes, Jeevun Sandher MP, Robert Skidelsky, Ron Smith, Guy Standing, Heather Stewart, Geoff Tily, Ben Tippet, Yanis Varoufakis (by video), Duncan Weldon, Nadia Whittome MP

Tickets here

Progressive Economics 2025

Patrick Allen April 27, 2025

Come to the PEF conference on 15th May at SOAS 9.30am-6.15pm

Economists and human rights experts call on Starmer to drop “destructive” economic policy

Patrick Allen August 30, 2023

In an open letter coordinated by the think-tank Compassion in Politics, academics including PEF Council members Ha-Joon Chang and Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson – authors of the widely read The Spirit Level – warn Starmer that his current approach mimics the “economic orthodoxy that has made this country poorer, less cohesive and more unequal than fifteen years ago.”

PROGRESSIVE ECONOMICS 2023

Patrick Allen April 6, 2023

Following the great success of our conference last year , the Progressive Economy Forum and the University of Greenwich Research Institute of Political Economy, Governance, Finance and Accountability bring you Progressive Economics 2023 –a conference of debate and education at a vital moment in the UK to debate the policies to tackle the alarming economic challenges of austerity, inequalities, Brexit, Covid-19, cost-of-living crisis, global supply problems, the war in Ukraine, care crisis and environmental collapse.What are the solutions and how to persuade the policy makers to implement them?

The Cost of Living Crisis – a paper by Ozlem Onaran

Özlem Onaran April 4, 2023

This paper by PEF Council member Ozlem Onaran analyses the political economy of the cost of living crisis in the context of the UK. It presents the long-term trends in the wage share, wealth inequality, labour’s bargaining power, and the real wages in the UK.