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Fixing British Politics
07 July 2009
Recent turmoil in parliament, from the expenses scandal to the electoral success of fringe parties, has raised a number of questions about how the British political system works. All the major political parties have added their voice to calls for reform of the political system. Current debates have revived some long-standing questions about the way we are governed and the nature of the British constitution.
To discuss these issues, ippr was joined by:
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Tony Wright MP, newly appointed chair of the all-party parliamentary reform committee
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Vernon Bogdanor, Britain’s leading constitutional expert and author of the newly published volume, The New British Constitution
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Dominic Grieve QC MP, Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Attorney General
This seminar is part of ippr’s Thinking for Tomorrow series, which presents big-picture thinking on a range of policy questions. Thinking for Tomorrow offers reflections from leading thinkers on some of the major challenges that will face policymakers in decades to come.
Cancelled: Tomorrow's Capitalism Debate: Capitalism and the challenge for progressive politics
10 June 2009
Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled due to external circumstances. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The crisis in capitalism represents a threat and an opportunity for progressive politics. It is a threat because progressives have argued for the use of some of the benefits of unfettered growth to finance their policy aims. In future, growth is likely to be lower and public spending will be constrained by the size of the government deficits built up during the recession. It is an opportunity because it is a once in a lifetime chance to influence the redesign of the capitalist model.
This debate will seek to establish the primary aims of progressive politics and to ask how they might be achieved during a period of constrained economic growth and pressure on public spending. It will also examine the role of the state in bringing about those aims. Where will the future balance between state, market and society lie?
Confirmed speakers include:
- Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and president of the Social Policy Association
- Geoff Mulgan, Director of The Young Foundation and former Head of Policy, Prime Minister's Office
- David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
- Fraser Nelson, The Spectator
- Lisa Harker, Co-director, ippr (Chair)
Tomorrow's Capitalism: Growth after the financial crisis
01 June 2009
With Carlota Perez, Research Associate, CFAP/CERF, Judge Business School, Cambridge University, UK Professor of Technology and Development, Technological University of Tallinn, Estonia, Honorary Research Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex, UK.
Download the recording: Carlota Perez (.mp3)
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The financial crisis and deep global recession not only caught many by surprise, but also leaves most of us very uncertain about the future. Numerous analyses of what went wrong with the governance of finance over the last 25 years are now appearing, but few if any give a convincing account of what happens next. Perhaps uniquely amongst analysts of capitalism, Carolta Perez offers a framework that not only places the current financial meltdown in an historical perspective going back 300 years, but also holds out the possibility that we may actually about to enter a new ‘golden age’ of equitable and productive growth.
Perez’s path-breaking book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: the Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages (2002) builds on the tradition of Schumpeter. Perez describes the ways in which successive surges of new technologies have transformed not only the economy but also its social institutions, and the crucial role of financial capital in those surges. Each surge has historically followed a pattern of technology emergence and explosive growth, leading to a period of financial frenzy, crisis and then a more steady period of deployment. The Wall Street Crash, Great Depression and post-war Golden Age can all be seen as part of the great surge associated with the age of oil, automobiles and mass production.
The current surge, dating from the early 1970s and based on ICTs and the Internet, has now hit the crisis stage. How easily and quickly we can move on to a phase of more sustainable deployment and growth depends crucially on reforms in finance as well as in wider institutions and policies, including those needed for a more environmentally sustainable growth.
Tomorrow's Capitalism Debate: A new international order?
20 May 2009
The financial crisis has challenged the hegemonic position of the US and confirmed the Eastward shift of economic power. It has exposed the imbalance between the trade surpluses of the East and the deficits in the West. This debate will examine a number of issues raised by the global nature of the crisis. Does the economic crisis pose a threat to globalisation and, if so, should we care? Are unfettered capital flows a good or a bad thing? In what circumstances, if any, is protectionism justified? How can China be integrated into the global economy without increasing its instability?
Confirmed speakers include:
- Bill Emmott, former Editor-in-Chief of The Economist magazine
- Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow, IDEAS, LSE.
- Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge
Download the recordings
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Download an event summary (pdf).
Tomorrow's Capitalism Seminar: Addressing the psychology of financial markets
14 May 2009
Speakers: Professor David Tuckett, UCL
Chair: Tony Dolphin, Senior Economist, ippr
What would a psychoanalyst do? Professor Tuckett will look at the behaviour of financial markets from a psychoanalytical perspective, exploring how asset bubbles develop and the policies we can introduce to stop them.
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Download an event summary (pdf)
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Tomorrow's Capitalism: What do we want from capitalism?
23 April 2009
Download the Audio from this event:
What do we want from capitalism? part 1 (.mp3)
What do we want from capitalism? part 2 (.mp3)
What do we want from capitalism? part 3 (.mp3)
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Download a summary paper from this event (pdf).
ippr's Tomorrow's Capitalism programme continues to explore the future shape of our financial and economic system.
As we enter the worst economic crisis in decades, many are asking whether capitalism has lost its way. While the economic model of the past thirty years generated huge increases in wealth, it is becoming increasingly apparent that this boom was unsustainable. It is also clear that high levels of growth did not necessarily lead to greater wellbeing or quality of life for many. It is therefore time to ask: what do we want from capitalism? Is economic growth the root to happiness? If not, should policy-makers abandon their focus on economic growth as both a target and measure of success? How can we use the current crisis to build a different form of capitalism and make the world a better place in which to live?
This debate examined the relationship between growth and wellbeing, how we measure 'progress', and the impact consumer culture has had on family life, moral character and social justice.
Speakers:
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Prof Lord Richard Layard, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and author of Happiness: lessons from a new science
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Madeleine Bunting, Guardian columnist and associate editor
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Paul Ormerod, Author of Death of Economics and Butterfly Economics
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Kate Green, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group
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Jonathan Freedland (Chair), Guardian columnist and Radio 4 presenter.
Tomorrow's Capitalism seminar: Towards An Accountable Capitalism
26 March 2009
ippr hosted a key seminar in the Tomorrow’s Capitalism programme in the run-up to the G20 meeting in London. David Pitt-Watson presented Towards An Accountable Capitalism, a paper he co-authored with Stephen Davis and Jon Lukomnik. Their paper was also launched in the USA by the Global Corporate Governance Forum, a part of the World Bank, in an attempt to generate an international discussion about the principles that should be behind any reform of the financial system. Following the presentation, Financial Times columnist John Kay charied a discussion to consider how we can best improve the way our financial system works.
Can the New Conservatives Build a New Economy?
24 March 2009
This event was part of our Thinking for Tomorrow series.
Download the recordings:
Part 1: Panelists
Part 2: Panelists continued
Part 3: Question and answers
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An expert panel discussed the economic policies advanced by David Cameron's Conservative Party and will explore the plans to steer the economy out of recession. They will considered whether the Conservatives are ready to provide answers to some of the key questions that the recession poses, including:
- Can we regenerate our economy without using the 'big state'?
- Do our third sector and community organisations have the capacity and skills to contribute to economic recovery?
- How do we achieve growth that is less reliant on debt, housing and the City?
Participants in the roundtable discussion:
- David Willetts, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
- John Gray, leading political philosopher and author
- Rachel Sylvester, The Times
- Andrew Gamble, Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge
- Philip Blond, Demos.
For further information about the 'Thinking for Tomorrow' series, please contact Michael Kenny: M.Kenny@ippr.org.
Tomorrow's Capitalism Roundtable discussion: Addressing flaws in the global capital model
26 February 2009
Speaker: Gerald Holtham, Managing Partner, Cadwyn Capital LLP
Chair: Tony Dolphin, ippr.
Gerald Holtham joined an invited audience of experts to discuss the thesis of a paper he is writing for the Tomorrow’s Capitalism programme. He argued that the underlying problem facing the world economy since the mid 1980s has been deficient demand caused by profits outstripping wages in a world of excess labour. This leads to very different policy recommendations than those derived from previous understandings of the global economy: governments now need to focus their attention on asset bubbles rather than wage-price spirals.
Download a summary of the discussion written by ippr researchers after the event.
Darwin and the dynamics of capitalism
12 February 2009
1:00pm-2:30pm
At the ippr, 30- 32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA
How can we understand economic growth, innovation and the behaviour of financial markets? Conventional economics - which assumes rationality, perfect information and a tendency to equilibrium - not only struggles with the kinds of boom and bust we have seen over the last year in financial markets, but also fails to explain and predict the fundamentally dynamic nature of capitalism. Over the last three decades, an alternative paradigm of Complexity Economics has emerged to challenge existing economics. Complexity Economics is not just about growth, but about constant change, and above all, evolution. It offers new ways of approaching corporate strategy and public policy.
On the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, was joined by Eric Beinhocker, a leading exponent of Complexity Economics and author of The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What it Means for Business and Society.
Beyond the myth of the market – principles for a new economic policy
18 December 2008
1:00 - 2:30pm
30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA
Larry Elliott has emerged as one of the most trenchant critics of UK and global economic policy over the last decade. Way ahead of the credit crunch and the recession, both in his regular columns and in a series of books, he warned of the folly of a strategy based on unsustainable debt and a belief in the infallibility of markets.
ippr is delighted that Larry joined us for a discussion of what should be done now, not only about the immediate crisis, but also about the longer term. He talked about his ideas for a fundamental overhaul of economic policy, aimed at a more sustainable future.
Download the podcast (mp3) from this event here:
Capitalism in Crisis?
09 December 2008
5.30pm - 8.30pm
Central London
Our financial markets are experiencing a period of extraordinary turmoil: lax lending practices in the US have led to a global credit crunch, resulting in the collapse of banks, plummeting stock markets, and a range of unprecedented bail-outs and rescue plans from governments around the world.
With an audience of economists, business leaders, politicians, policymakers and commentators, the debate explored the implications of the current financial crisis and asked what needs to happen to ensure that it does not happen again, as well as addressed the wider consequences for capitalism.
Read an article by Google UK director Matt Brittin published ahead of the event.
Tomorrow's Capitalism Seminar: The Sub-Prime Solution
27 November 2008
Speakers: Professor Robert Shiller, Yale University; John McFall MP, Chair of the Treasury Select Committee; and Chris Giles, Economics Editor, Financial Times.
Download the podcast from this event.
The roots of the current global financial crisis lie in the US sub-prime mortgage market, and the trillions of dollars worth of unsustainable loans that were made under the veil of securitisation. To provide a unique and insight into how the bubble burst and what should now be done, ippr was delighted to be joined by perhaps the most eminent and considered examiner of modern investment bubbles, Professor Robert Shiller of Yale Unversity.
Prof Shiller accurately predicted that the crisis would be much more acute and on a larger scale than many thought, and anticipated the bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic. He talked about his new book, Sub-Prime Solution, which offers a solution to the crisis, radically different from much current thinking. We were also joined by John McFall MP, chair of the Common’s Treasury Select Committee, who gave a view on the implications of Shiller’s proposals, for UK housing and financial markets.