Positive Money

Ten years after the financial collapse of 2008 we are still mired in economic stagnation, austerity and now, on top of it all, a serious political crisis over Brexit. No wonder that most people are seriously confused! We believe that the best way to make some sense of the current situation is by taking a close look at the neoliberal economic paradigm, the type of economic governance introduced in the 80’s by the Thatcher and Reagan governments and never abandoned since then. Most people are familiar with the term ‘neoliberal’ but don’t quite grasp its full meaning in economic terms. We will try to remedy this. Costanza Picchioni, our organizer, will give a comprehensive overview of the subject by first tracing how neoliberal economics came to dominate the scene (following the collapse of the Bretton Woods currency union in 1971 and the ensuing crisis of the previous economic paradigm), then describing how it works (by delocalising industry and increasing the role of finance) and why it is unsustainable (reducing the role of production inevitably leads to unsustainable debts) and finally by making the case that the financial collapse of 2008 really marked the end of its useful life and the start of a very uncertain phase of transition (just as the ‘closing of the gold window’ in 1971 marked the beginning of the end of the Bretton Woods economic architecture). With the help of a drawing we will show how all the familiar features of the neoliberal landscape (financial deregulation, deindustrialization, rising debts, asset bubbles, austerity etc.) slot together into a coherent and powerful wealth extraction mechanism. This way you will be able to see where we are in a hypothetical map and perhaps figure out for yourself where we are headed to, and what a reasonable solution might look like. The possible outcomes will be the subject of the ensuing discussion. As usual, everybody is very welcome to come along as we have a friendly group of regulars and most likely some first timers too.