I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Labour List webinar I watched on the subject of what Labour might learn from ‘Bidenomics.’ I forgot to mention that when the panellists were asked to name a left-wing economist who inspired them, there was an embarrassed silence. Perhaps they just don’t read, least of all Stiglitz, Varoufakis or Piketty. They might not have welcomed what Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century had to say (in an interview in this week’s New Statesman):
‘There is a risk that Labour once again becomes too conservative on the economy. Control of the party has been taken by what I view as conservative approaches, which simply won’t work. Given the scale of the climate crisis, as well as the various social challenges and levels of public debt, the idea that you can confront these without major transformation of the fiscal system is just wrong. If the 20th century invented the income tax system, the 21st century will have to enact a progressive wealth tax system. What the Labour Party is currently advocating is far too conservative.’ The interview concludes with ‘The only priority now is to construct a socialist alternative.’ Sadly, nothing is further from the Reeves/Starmer mindset, which is stuck in a thought-bog of capitalist economic tweakery masquerading as ‘radical change.’
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