Progressive Economics 2022

Covid-19 accelerated the digitisation of our economy, as more and more activity has moved online. But the technologies we have threaten an uncertain future at best: unemployment, huge inequalities of wealth and power, and a lack of democratic oversight. What might we expect, and what are the alternatives?

Chair: Ben Tippet
Speakers: Dalia Gebrial, Ursula Huws, Aaron Benanav

Digital Futures

Government intervention is back in a big way, as countries turn back on years of free market ideology to actively support national industries in an increasingly competitive and unstable world. The session presents the case for an active industrial strategy to meet social and economic goals.

Chair: Patrick Allen
Speakers: Paul Sweeney, David Edgerton, Michael Jacobs

Industrial Strategy Or Industrial Decline

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought devastation to that country, but the shockwaves from its impact can be felt across the globe. This session explores the political economy of the war.

Chair: James Meadway
Speakers: Yuliya Yurchenko, Andy Kilmster, Jan Toporowski

Russia’s War, And The Political Economy Of Ukraine

The past decade has seen an unprecedented growth in the asset manager industry. Giants like BlackRock now control trillions and trillions of dollars worth of assets. But what does this say about the concentration of wealth and power?  And how should we reimagine ownership to better serve people and planet?

Chair:
Speakers: Matthew Lawrence, Hettie O’Brien, Josh Ryan-Collins

The Age Of Blackrock: what asset manager capitalism means for people and planet

Can economic growth continue? Should it continue? As recession looms yet again, this panel opens up a discussion on why we shouldn’t take economic growth for granted – and how we might think about alternatives.

Chair: Özlem Onaran
Speakers: Gareth Dale, Diane Elson

The End Of Economic Growth

As inflation rises, the mainstream response is to make workers pay – through recession, or through deeper cuts to wages. This session will be about the economic alternative – how workers are winning more rights and building their unions.

Speakers: Alexander Guschanski, Ben Sellers

Workers And The Crisis

The housing crisis worsens and the inequalities and injustices of our housing market are made daily more apparent. This session will hear from experts and campaigners about what has gone wrong, and how we can provide a secure, affordable home for all.

Speakers: Frances Northrop, Anna Minton

The Right To Housing

The pandemic saw one of the biggest transfers of wealth in human history – upwards, to the very wealthiest in society. This panel will look at the mechanisms of that transfer, and its consequences, and show ways in which the seemingly endless rise in inequality of wealth can be halted and reversed.

Chair: Guy Standing
Speakers: Gary Stevenson, Ben Tippett, Kate Pickett

Why Rising Inequality Matters

The mainstream response to the worst inflation in decades has exposed the failures of neoclassical thinking. With central banks and governments seemingly unable to do anything but push up interest rates and hope for a recession, it’s time for a radical rethink of how we manage our economies.

Chair: James Meadway
Speakers: Carsten Jung, John McDonnell, Jo Michell

What Does A Progressive Macroeconomic Policy Look Like

Our financial system remains dysfunctional, steering billions into new, more speculative assets whilst failing to invest properly in the industries and sectors we need for the future. This session will look at what has gone wrong, and how finance can be turned to socially useful ends.

Chair: Geoff Tily 
Speakers: Stephany Griffith-Jones, Josh Ryan-Collins, Maria Nikolaidi

Financing The Green Economy

This is a recording of the keynote lecture at Progressive Economics 2022, given by Professor Michael Marmot.

Introduction by PEF Chair and Founder, Patrick Allen. 

Michael Marmot is a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, the Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity and Past President of the World Medical Association. He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (2015) and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (2004).

Keynote Address from Professor Michael Marmot

For decades, our economic policies have not proved fit for purpose. The dominant economic ideology has exacerbated inequality, undermined public services and left us woefully underprepared for the challenges posed to our society by technological and climate change. The Global Financial Crisis should have been a watershed moment; instead, the same economic ideas prevailed unchanged and served only to blight our recovery.

 
The Progressive Economy Forum (PEF) is a non-partisan initiative seeking to correct this by developing a new, progressive macroeconomic programme, founded on the principles of equity, dynamism and sustainability. Our forum brings together a Council of twelve eminent economists and academics with a dedicated secretariat. Together, we aim to develop and advocate progressive policy ideas for the UK and to inform the wider public of the possibilities offered by an alternative macroeconomics.

Progressive Economy Forum

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