Sovereign Money Creation and Basic Income

The Covid crisis is prompting many rethinks about the fundamentals of economics policy and the social contract. How will all the money diverted into furlough schemes and other emergency programmes be recovered? How does increasing automation of work tasks change considerations? Is it time to accelerate the adoption of a Basic Income?

A frequent argument against Basic Income is that it would be either too small to be meaningful or too large to be affordable. Some seek a return to austerity measures as soon as possible.

But various heterodox economists dispute the importance of a "balanced budget" for a country, like the UK, which can create money by fiat. Potential paradigm shifts such as "Modern Monetary Theory", "Bank Money", and "Sovereign Money" are gaining more attention. How should we assess these approaches? Are they recipes for runaway inflation and ruinous debt for future generations? Or an inspired new way of understanding economic reality and "affordability"?

This London Futurists webinar in partnership with Radix will feature Geoff Crocker, Radix's newest fellow, technology strategist, author, and advocate for both basic income and sovereign money. He will be sharing insights from his recent book ‘Basic Income and Sovereign Money: the alternative to economic crisis and austerity policy’ - which Martin Wolf of the Financial Times included in his list of the best mid-year economic books - and answering audience questions.

This webinar is also part of Radix's exploration of options for recovery from Covid. See https://radixuk.org/

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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FoSOaZiRRXi18ND3Ma2K-A

The Zoom registration fee (UKP £2.50) helps cover London Futurists running costs, such as software licensing. The webinar can also be viewed, without charge, on the London Futurists YouTube channel, but without the option to participate in the live Q&A.

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Geoff Crocker graduated in economics (BA), and philosophy of science (MA). His main career has been in global technology strategy consulting for multinationals (IBM, ABB, Yamaha, Kone et al.), SMEs, and government departments and agencies.

Geoff worked in transition of the Russian economy from 1990 to 2006, supporting the reorientation of industry sectors into the global market economy. He led the acquisition of a US design company for a Russian client. He was economics adviser to the President of the Russian coal industry, and later strategy director of SUEK, one of Russia’s largest companies. Other clients included Power Machines Group, Ilim Pulp, United Heavy Machinery, and EBRD.

In 1995, Geoff established Bristol Care Homes with a mission statement to provide high quality holistic nursing care for elderly people. He has worked in developing countries, including funding a pineapple investment project in Ghana, advising a pastoralist centre in Kenya, and for several clients in South Africa.

Geoff has worked extensively as an advocate for basic income, launching and editing the web site ‘The Case for Basic Income’. He has also helped initiate a research project on the economics of basic income at IPR Bath, the Basic Income Conversation hub hosted at Compass UK, and the conference ‘Is it Time for Basic Income’ at the Bristol Festival of Ideas, UK.

See http://www.ubi.org/ and https://www.basicincomeconversation.org/

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The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 13th February. To find this time in other timezones, see https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20210213T160000&p1=136

You are advised to log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the publicised start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FoSOaZiRRXi18ND3Ma2K-A