Renegade Economist w/Ann Pettifor

[kriden]

[NCR85]

Re: Renegade Economist w/Ann Pettifor

"She saw it first" - to the best of my knowledge that honor would have to go to Fred Harrison:

in 1997, in The Chaos Makers, he warned:

“By 2007 Britain and most of the other industrially advanced economies will be in the throes of frenzied activity in the land market…Land prices will be near their 18-year peak… on the verge of the collapse that will presage the global depression of 2010.

The two events will not be coincidental: the peak in land prices not merely signalling the looming recession, but being the primary cause of it.”

http://www.fredharrison.com/?page_id=2

[Polish_Silver]

Re: Renegade Economist w/Ann Pettifor

Pettitfor is hit and miss.

I agree with her that public policy is encouraging toxic speculative finance. I disagree that low interest rates are not part of the problem.

I think Kotlikoff's reform ideas are a lot better. (reforms about half way down the page)
http://www.kotlikoff.net/jimmy-stewart-dead

She needs to state what real rates should be, and what the risk adjusted spread on home mortgages should be.

If windfarms are so great, she should explain why they cannot pay back interest at a market determined rate.
A logical solution would be to subsidise them at a rate corresponding to the externalized cost of the fossil fuel energy they replace. But it is highly controversial how big the externalized cost is.

She also seems to think it is a simple distinction between productive lending and speculation.

You could certainly have a bubble in green energy or green agriculture, just as we did in internet stocks.

A big part of the problem was lending for luxury consumption. And much of the "speculation" was involved in derivatives dependent on borrowing for luxury consumption of grand houses, cars, etc.

[c1ue]

Re: Renegade Economist w/Ann Pettifor

Several issues with this interview:

1) Calling out The Economist as a bastion of economic thought, as opposed to a popularizer of neo-liberal economic thinking. I thought the entire point of Pettifor was that she wasn't 'establishment'

2) Soros

3) 3rd world debt forgiveness. Nice PR move, but that's about it.

The actual 3rd world debt relief program is much more about banksterism than altruism, as one of its key requirements is the institution of an austerity program including sell off of state assets like dams and mines. Sound familiar?