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Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

30 Aug

People are really worried about inflation. The right-wing media is fuelling that concern by saying government money creation is bound to lead to it increasing. And so people are also worried about interest rate rises. None of this is necessary. A thread….

First, let's deal with that money creation issue. The UK government has created about £900 billion of money in the last 12 years. No inflation in every day prices has resulted. So for those making the claim that it will do so now have to prove why things have changed.

As a matter of fact they have not. The government has had to create money because all the time money is destroyed in our economy. That's the result of the way money works. Paying tax destroys government created money. Paying back loans destroys bank created money.

Read 67 tweets

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

22 Aug

Nick Cohen says in the Observer today ‘On the left, the list of taboos you cannot break stretches to the crack of doom. Once again, no one admits they observe them out of fear of online abuse or of malicious colleagues demanding their dismissal.’ A thread seems to be required…

What are these taboos that the left cannot acknowledge? Let’s start with the big one. It’s that we live in a democracy. We don’t. First past the post doesn’t even vaguely approximate to the democracy that we need. We should say it.

Then it has to be said that Labour are as much opposed to democracy as the Tories. Labour willingly partake in maintaining first past the post and are, alongside the Tories, enemies of democracy as a result.

Read 18 tweets

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

15 Aug

The government wants to cut its spending. It says we cannot afford it. The claim is that if we have to borrow or increase taxes to spend then that must mean we can’t afford things like more education or healthcare. But they are wrong. We should spend, now. A thread to explain…

First, trust me, everything I say in this thread is actually pretty straightforward. It’s just stuff no politician ever talks about. That’s because the truth I relate doesn’t suit a political narrative that wants to cut the size of the state, come what may.

Second, also trust me that what I am going to discuss is not some weird, unknown, form of economics. This is actually fairly bog-standard stuff that’s been known for a long time. It’s just that politicians pretend they do not know it.

Read 51 tweets

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

10 Aug

The world is heading for climate catastrophe. That is not overstatement. That is fact. But what can we actually do? What follows may seem radical, but if we aren’t radical in the face of the risk of extinction when else will we be? A thread….

First, we must make our companies account for the cost of stopping their climate emissions, and insist that they do it now. And I mean stopping those emissions. That has to happen.

We also need to accept that if a company can’t stop its climate emissions then it needs to go out of business by the time we have to get to net zero, or be run under strict government emissions control.

Read 19 tweets

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

6 Aug

The Guardian has reported that fuel prices are rising this morning. That deeply annoys me….a thread follows…there are ways to tackle this….

Firstly, the reason for the price increases is supposedly because of market pressures. Actually, as massive profit increases at BP, Shell and other companies shows, that is nothing more than profit-taking.

Second, this is apparently intended to keep small market suppliers afloat - because otherwise they would go bust and the supposed 'market' in domestic energy supply would fail.

Read 14 tweets

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

1 Aug

@GNev2

Gary Neville, @GNev2, suggested we need a peaceful revolution yesterday. It’s not the usual call for an ex Manchester United player who is now a football commentator. But was he right to do so? A short thread….

I am not by inclination revolutionary. But we need to change our head of state.

And we need to be rid of the House of Lords.

We need electoral reform - because first past the post is nothing like democracy now.

We need to respect the right of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to choose their own futures.

And we need to revive local decision making, and democracy.

Education needs to be back under state control, and not that of private academies.

Read 12 tweets

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