Author: Damon Gibbons
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781907720970
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
"Damon's book provides a timely insight into the power of personal debt to not just make life a daily struggle of the public but do long term damage to the future our country. He matches detailed analysis with a passionate call for action that many will find compelling" Stella Creasy MP ''This is a timely analysis of the growth in personal debt and a passionate plea for action. Few people understand the working of credit markets better than Damon and his proposals for effective regulation deserve serious attention." Paul Blomfield MP "Damon is one of those rare people who is able to combine a social policy researchers' attention to detail with a campaigners' zeal and passion to make change happen. The fact that he has managed to sustain this work for more than a decade, even when it has often meant swimming against the prevailing opinion of the times, is remarkable. Not only that, his analysis of the problems and solutions to Britain's personal debt crisis is always insightful, and almost always right!" Niall Cooper director Church Action on Poverty ''Damon Gibbons has campaigned over many years for fair lending at a reasonable price to low income households. From doorstep lending to payday loans he has challenged established ideas and called for a cap on costs - a policy now endorsed by the Government." Paul Lewis, journalist and broadcaster About the book We are living in a period of great unrest. What is commonly regarded as starting as a 'credit crunch' in 2007 became a full blown financial crisis the following year causing the 'deepest global downturn in recent history'. Across Europe, rising insolvencies and unemployment have led to falling tax revenues, and to yawning national budget deficits. The austerity measures taken to 'deal with' these deficits are exacerbating wealth inequalities and a series of social and political crises are emerging Underpinning all of these events is a personal debt crisis, and it remains utterly unresolved. The personal debt crisis is not a single moment in time but has been caused by the de-regulation of the financial sector over a period of thirty years; of deep change within the structure of our labour market; of failed housing policies; and of the erosion of the welfare state. The personal debt crisis is also a cultural crisis, where positive notions of self reliance and responsibility have been twisted by the credit industry to encourage people to meet short term 'wants' at the expense of long term 'needs'.
Author: Kathleen Burk
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300057288
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298
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Book Description
In this authoritative and gripping book--the first full account of the 1976 International Monetary Fund crisis--Kathleen Burk and Alec Cairncross peel back the surface of the most searing economic crisis of postwar Britain to reveal its historical roots and contemporary context. During the spring of 1976, the plummeting value of the British pound against the U.S. dollar triggered a traumatic economic and political crisis. International confidence in the pound collapsed; an article in the Wall Street Journal, headlined "Good-bye, Great Britain," urged investors to get out of sterling. Refused aid by the London and New York markets, the Labour Government under Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to turn for help to the IMF--a highly unusual move for a developed Western economy. Fearing that the economic crisis would drive Britain into a left-wing siege economy which would endanger NATO and the EEC, the United States and Germany used the IMF loan as a means to force Britain to make major domestic policy changes; when the IMF mission arrived in London in November 1976, it was announced that the price for the loan included deep cuts in domestic spending. Burk and Cairncross uncover the maneuvers of the Labour Government to evade IMF conditions. They also examine underlying economic factors, the political agenda, the rise of monetarist ideas, and the Keynesian response. Juxtaposing narrative with analysis, they provide surprising answers to critical questions and reveal how the breakdown of the post-war consensus on the macroeconomic management paved the way for the triumph of Thatcherism.
Author: A. Pettifor
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230236758
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
In this book, Ann Pettifor examines the issues of debt affecting the 'first world' or OECD countries, looking at the history, politics and ethics of the coming debt crisis and exploring the implications of high international indebtedness for governments, corporations, households, individuals and the ecosystem.
Author: Michael Veseth
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019992340X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Like the United States today, Renaissance Florence and Victorian Britain were the richest, most dynamic economic systems of their times. Yet each succumbed to a fiscal crisis brought on by public debt and taxation and eventually fell into long-term economic decline. Now, public debt and taxation dominate the America policy agenda. Must the United States follow the same dismal pattern of fiscal crisis and economic decline? Mountains of Debt argues that it is not too late for the United States to change directions and suggests a comprehensive program for reform of American fiscal institutions that would reduce the deficit problem and at the same time reverse the long-term structural trends that are both the cause and the effect of the fiscal crisis today. Offering proposals for reducing the deficit, this new analysis could alter the current course of the United States economy.
Author: Anton Brender
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789461383372
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"The Sovereign Debt Crisis," 2012 edition, looked at how governments ran up substantial deficits in order to avert a worldwide depression and their subsequent attempts to rebalance their budgets. This updated edition concentrates on the delicate balancing act the economies of the United States, Japan, and the eurozone face between the present need to boost sluggish economic growth by providing sufficiently cheap, low-risk credit and the longer-term challenges of cutting massive debt and returning to a sustainable fiscal policy. The authors argue that many of the euro area economies, having noticeable difficulty paying their international debts, are in a sovereign debt crisis, while America and Japan are, for now, holding steady but in real danger of slipping into crisis. The book shows how the process has evolved in these three major developed economies and how their policy choices impact global financial markets.
Author: Adair Turner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691175985
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
Why our addiction to debt caused the global financial crisis and is the root of our financial woes Adair Turner became chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority just as the global financial crisis struck in 2008, and he played a leading role in redesigning global financial regulation. In this eye-opening book, he sets the record straight about what really caused the crisis. It didn’t happen because banks are too big to fail—our addiction to private debt is to blame. Between Debt and the Devil challenges the belief that we need credit growth to fuel economic growth, and that rising debt is okay as long as inflation remains low. In fact, most credit is not needed for economic growth—but it drives real estate booms and busts and leads to financial crisis and depression. Turner explains why public policy needs to manage the growth and allocation of credit creation, and why debt needs to be taxed as a form of economic pollution. Banks need far more capital, real estate lending must be restricted, and we need to tackle inequality and mitigate the relentless rise of real estate prices. Turner also debunks the big myth about fiat money—the erroneous notion that printing money will lead to harmful inflation. To escape the mess created by past policy errors, we sometimes need to monetize government debt and finance fiscal deficits with central-bank money. Between Debt and the Devil shows why we need to reject the assumptions that private credit is essential to growth and fiat money is inevitably dangerous. Each has its advantages, and each creates risks that public policy must consciously balance.
Author: Mattias Vermeiren
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509537708
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
Spiralling inequality since the 1970s and the global financial crisis of 2008 have been the two most important challenges to democratic capitalism since the Great Depression. To understand the political economy of contemporary Europe and America we must, therefore, put inequality and crisis at the heart of the picture. In this innovative new textbook Mattias Vermeiren does just this, demonstrating that both the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis resulted from a mutually reinforcing but ultimately unsustainable relationship between countries with debt-led and export-led growth models, models fundamentally shaped by soaring income and wealth inequality. He traces the emergence of these two growth models by giving a comprehensive overview, deeply informed by the comparative and international political economy literature, of recent developments in the four key domains that have shaped the dynamics of crisis and inequality: macroeconomic policy, social policy, corporate governance and financial policy. He goes on to assess the prospects for the emergence of a more egalitarian and sustainable form of democratic capitalism. This fresh and insightful overview of contemporary Western capitalism will be essential reading for all students and scholars of international and comparative political economy.
Author: Sue Konzelmann
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447352556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
What if we had a government prepared to implement the policies that could radically change 21st-century Britain and improve people’s lives? Social and economic policies are rarely communicated clearly to the public, but it’s never been more important for citizens to understand and contribute to the debate around the country’s future. In everyday language, Rethinking Britain presents a range of ideas from some of the country’s most influential thinkers such as Kate Pickett and Ha-Joon Chang. From inflation to tax, and health to education, each contribution offers solutions which, if implemented, would lead to a fairer society. Curated by leading economists from the Progressive Economics Group and accompanied by a ‘jargon buster’, this book is an essential aid for citizens who are interested in critiquing inequalities while looking to build a better future.
Author: Jodi Gardner
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781839104343
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
This book explores the complex interactions between debt and austerity, analysing the social, economic, and legal implications of governments' responses to the 2008 financial crisis. Demonstrating how the nature of debt for those on low incomes has changed radically over the last decade, the chapters provide insight into how structural inequality was exacerbated by changes in the redistributive state, the legal system, and the welfare system. The examination occurs on a number of levels and these issues are explored through the lens of power, place, and class. The authors utilize both international case studies and 'on the ground' experiences, reviewing the role of high cost credit, bailiffs, local governments, bankruptcy, and debt advice. Through the analysis of the nature and structure of debt in specific countries, it highlights important lessons for a global audience. This unique book offers a broad, multi-faceted insight into the issue of low-income debt which will greatly benefit academics in law, social policy, geography, and economics. Its focus on practical steps and potential reforms, as well as contributions from third sector organizations, will also interest practitioners, policymakers, and NGOs.
Author: Nicholas Shaxson
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802146384
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
An “artfully presented [and] engaging” look at the insidious effects of financialization on our lives and politics by the author of Treasure Islands (The Boston Globe). How didthe banking sector grow from a supporter of business to the biggest business in the world? Financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson takes us on a terrifying journey through the world economy, exposing tax havens, monopolists, megabanks, private equity firms, Eurobond traders, lobbyists, and a menagerie of scoundrels quietly financializing our entire society, hurting both business and individuals. Shaxson shows how we got here, telling the story of how finance re-engineered the global economic order in the last half-century, with the aim not of creating wealth but extracting it from the underlying economy. Under the twin gospels of “national competitiveness” and “shareholder value,” megabanks and financialized corporations have provoked a race to the bottom between states to provide the most subsidized environment for big business, encouraged a brain drain into finance, fostered instability and inequality, and turned a blind eye to the spoils of organized crime. From Ireland to Iowa, he shows the insidious effects of financialization on our politics and on communities who were promised paradise but got poverty wages instead. We need a strong financial system—but when it grows too big it becomes a monster. The Finance Curse is the explosive story of how finance got a stranglehold on society, and reveals how we might release ourselves from its grasp. Revised with new chapters “[Discusses] corrupt financiers in London and New York City, geographically obscure tax havens, the bizarre realm of wealth managers in South Dakota, a ravaged newspaper in New Jersey, and a shattered farm economy in Iowa . . . A vivid demonstration of how corruption and greed have become the main organizing principles in the finance industry.” —Kirkus Reviews
