Macrodose

On this week’s Macrodose, Antonia Jennings breaks down: the increasing trend of local governments going bankrupt (1:30), the power of local government to mitigate ecological collapse (7:45), and a listener question - GDP is a crude and outdated metric, but can we break it down further to work out what’s really going on (14:14)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/

After Kojo Koram stepped in to guest-host the regular show this week, we're unlocking this fascinating MACRODOSE EXTRA chat with James recorded back in January. Empire, colonialism and the dawn of free market thinking - from Enoch Powell to Margaret Thatcher. Kojo is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, a tour de force on the legacies of Empire and how they shape modern Britain, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022. Kojo is also the co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State, which was published in 2021, and star of the recent short-film for openDemocracy, Boomerang: how the legacies of empire are breaking Britain’s economy - which you can find on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmOK4tNc31A

On this week’s Macrodose, Kojo Koram tells us a longer form story: how Jamaica nearly saved the world from Neoliberalism, and the international economic order that never was (1:40). For a deeper look into how Britain's economy has been and continues to be shaped by its colonial past, I highly recommend Kojo's book Uncommon Wealth https://tinyurl.com/mw34eprr A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the reality behind the touted success of Bidenomics (1:41), and the role of organised labour today - what’s the future for trade unions, and can they be a vehicle for political change (9:03)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose Our guests today are Anjali Krishan and Kavita Dattani. They’ve joined us today on behalf of Fairwork, an action-research project coordinated by the Oxford Internet Institute to discuss the new report they’ve co-authored entitled ‘Beyond techno-solutionism: gender and platform work’.   The report is based on research into working conditions on online platforms spanning four years, 38 countries, over 190 unique platforms, and interviews with more than 5000 platform workers.  You can access the full report here: https://fair.work/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2023/07/Fairwork-Gender-Report-2023-FINAL-red.pdf

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: global food inflation (0.44), Italy’s 40% windfall tax on bank super profits (5.34) and a listener question - isn’t greedflation just capitalism (9.35)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/ Links: Josh Martin’s Twitter thread that inspired today’s listener question: https://tinyurl.com/mv8vxkzn

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the economics behind Rishi Sunak’s decision to allow over a hundred new drilling licences for North Sea oil and gas (0.43), the continuing economic slowdown in China (5.32) and a listener question - what is “derisking” and what does it tell us about the end of neoliberalism (9.05)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/ Links: You can find some of Daniela Gabor’s work here: https://tinyurl.com/yck96bzp

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the argument around the expansion of London’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (0.48), extreme weather events across the world and their effect on global supply chains (6.38) and Belgium's approach to dealing with inflation (10.33)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to https://planetbproductions.co.uk/

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today at patreon.com/macrodose to hear the full version of this interview and many more.  Our guest today is Cecilia Rikap, who is lecturer in International Political Economy at City University in London. Cecilia's research focuses on the political economy of technology, and her last book, Capitalism, Power and Innovation, describes the emergence of what she called “intellectual monopoly capitalism” as giant tech companies come to dominate our economic life. She summarised some of her arguments in a recent piece for the New Left Review, “Capitalism as Usual?”, which challenges some recent accounts by economists like Cedric Durand and Yanis Varoufakis, who argue that we are moving out of capitalism altogether, and into something they call “techno-feudalism”. Links: You can read Cecilia's article here: https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii139/articles/capitalism-as-usual

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new research in Nature Sustainability examining the prospect of collapsing ecosystems (1.45), and a listener question - what are the alternative models to economic growth, and how can we get there (8.05)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk Links: Read the Nature Sustainability article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01157-x Check out Planet B: Everything Must Change here: https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/planet-b/ And grab a copy of Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2650-half-earth-socialism