The Free Lunch

James Robertson the pioneer of alternative economics has died (Obit. The Times 18 Jan.      Guardian 6 Dec 2023  ).  Through his writing and lobbying he drew together several strands of pi...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2024/01/james-robertson.html

THE BANK OF ENGLAND ASKED FOR COMMENTS ABOUT ITS IDEA FOR A DIGITAL CURRENCY: 'THE DIGITAL POUND: A NEW FORM OF MONEY FOR HOUSEHOLDS AND BUSINESSES'.  My submission was as follows:      ...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2023/07/central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc.html

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to announce 12 regional growth projects with low tax and other investment incentives (ex-PM Liz Truss wanted 200 zones).  The decentralisation idea is a good one...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2023/03/budget-alternatives-richard-werner-on.html

The Conservative leadership contenders ask:  When does the Covid-induced public debt start to get paid off? What about inflation if we reduce taxes to ease household finances? How do you achieve...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2022/08/sunak-vs-truss-debt-inflation-and.html

Great words get borrowed and highjacked for quite different purposes.  'Jubilee' was originally 'a year of emancipation and restoration'  (OED) in ancient Jewish history when people who had lo...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2022/06/jubilee-very-suitable-word.html

MERRYN SOMSERSET WEBB FAVOURS LAND VALUE TAX In a philosophical article in Saturday's FT (4 December 2021 ) Merryn Somerset Webb writes that she 'favours land value tax'  as she explores aspect...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2021/12/merryn-somserset-webb-favours-land.html

What did 'levelling up' mean in the Hartlepool swing to the Tories?  The Hartlepool constituency, returned a Tory MP Jill Mortimer, 'farmer and business woman' , after a 50 year run for Labour. ...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2021/05/hartlepool-levelling-up-was-that-it.html

Following 100,000+ votes for the petition in favour of Universal Basic Income (this blog March 19 2020) a Parliamentary debate was held on October 13th in Westminster Hall .   The Debate Pac...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/11/universal-basic-income-fasten-seatbelt.html

The Spectator published this letter recently as the groundswell for an universal, unconditional Basic Income grows ever stronger.   Maybe Basic Income a.k.a: Citizen's Income/Citizen's Royalty...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/05/communitarian-conservatives-1832-reform.html

Shock! Horror! The Tories have stolen Labour's public spending policies. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has started to undo the austerity that his own party imposed for a decade which, as Headley Stone�...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/03/another-tory-policy-basic-income.html

The boring and brilliant 'Get Brexit Done' tag did it for the Tories with Brexit voters gifting the election to the Tories with an extraordinary 80 seat majority for Boris Johnson as Prime Mini...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/01/brexit-is-done-get-fairness-started.html

The Labour party has said it will bring utility companies into public ownership:          We will bring rail, mail, water and energy into public ownership to end the great privatisation  r...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/12/election-2019-debt-free-public-funding.html

At the pinnacle of our capitalist system is perched the Bank of England which Dr Plamen Ivanov calls 'this key capitalist firm'. An apt phrase given that the Bank has seemed unquestionably auth...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/08/plamen-ivanov-reveals-strange-origin-of.html

Do you like the idea of the prosperous life which the politicians promise? Last week in Leicester an economist showed an improved way of releasing prosperity. Point by point he showed that the 1...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/05/richard-werner-is-doing-better-than.html

NOTE: see following blogpost for report Professor Richard Werner is to deliver an Inaugural Lecture at De Montfort University Leicester on Wednesday 1st May. TITLE: Paradigm Shift - From how w...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/04/richard-werner-inaugural-lecture-1st.html

The House of Commons has not yet been allowed a free vote on variations of Brexit in order to achieve a consensus. Whether that would enable a Brexit deal that would satisfy the EU is a moot poi...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/03/may-election-mrs-may-let-people-have.html

Horses are sometimes given blinkers around their eyes to prevent them from being spooked by their surroundings. Ed Conway in a recent Times article   (Feb 15 2019) Shiny new toys are beginning ...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/02/ed-conway-unusually-has-blinkers-on.html

The eve of Brexit extends now to two years, but how long yet? Since the referendum we have  been in a state of flummox. The bewildering closeness of the pro-Brexit vote in 2016 is now no more d...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/12/after-long-brexit-eve-brighter-post.html

Central bankers speak in very measured ways as they pronounce on important things such as the likely track of the national or global economy, Brexit or reading the runes about future interest r...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/08/alan-greenspan-cold-shouldered-richard.html

Rev Michael Curry might have flung a door open for over a billion people on 19th May 2018 through his talk at the royal Harry/Meghan wedding. The intriguing possibility that society might be tra...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/05/rev-michael-curry-that-harrymeghan.html

John D Rockefeller, through controlling oil supply, and Andrew Carnegie through steel supply, created hugely successful enterprises that grew on technological advances and expanding markets.  I...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/03/digital-subscriber-royalty-facebook.html

Professor Kay thinks basic income for all (not means-tested / tax-free / regular) is unaffordable. His article   (Intereconomics 2017/2) carefully analyses several international proposals, but ...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html

For years the owners of Thames Water were able to skim off annual returns above 15% and eventually sell up leaving a £2bn debt with Thames Water. Nationally the private owners of the UK's water...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/12/re-nationalisation-at-zero-cost-no-debt.html

Central bankers are openly struggling to understand why their low interest rate regime of the past decade has not brought vigorous renewed growth to their economies. This new paper  Reconsideri...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/10/richard-werner-and-kang-soek-lee.html

The IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) has published its interim report 'Time for Change: A New Vision for the British Economy' . Archbishop Justin Welby is leading the publicity with ...

https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/09/welbys-wish-list-for-fairness-new.html