Monthly Archives: August 2019

The US edition – coming soon

With a whole lot of new US material that isn’t in the UK edition, spread across several chapters, plus a full new chapter on the financialisation (sorry, financialization) of hogs in Iowa, which has turned out to be a classic, extraordinary, finance-curse story.

That image is kind of brutal. But I love it. And it’s quite apt.

The cover text is here. It’s due out in early November.

There will also be Japanese, Finnish and Taiwanese editions.

With, hopefully, more to come.

And it’s going to be made into a film. Early days, though.

How financialisation worsens Britain’s regional divides

Updated: this new Scottish analysis complements the blog nicely.

I’ve just co-written a submission to a UK parliamentary inquiry on Britain’s regional economic imbanances. The submission looks at at how financialisation is contributing to the staggeringly large divide between wealthy parts of London (and associated areas,) and the rest.

The widely-believed story is that London is the financial-centre engine of the British economy, showering jobs and tax revenues on the entire country. In the words of Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, now Prime Minister,

“A pound spent in Croydon is of far more value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde. You will generate jobs in Strathclyde far more effectively if you invest in parts of London.”

(Seriously, he said that.)

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