Politics of Alternative Finance

September 2010 (All day) - September 2012 (All day)

Funded jointly by OpenSpace and CRESC, Politics of Alternative Finance brings together new thinking on the financial crisis, and new ideas for reforming the financial sector. This ongoing project provides space for dialogue in the form of a series of video and podcasts as well as links to organisations and websites that can inform the debate on economic alternatives.

After autumn 2008, governments moved decisively to prop up a collapsing financial system and prevent deep recession. By summer 2009, bankers rediscovered business as usual and the impetus for fundamental reform now seems lost. By mid 2010 a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition was in power and attention had been neatly shifted from the financial crisis to the ‘problem’ of public sector debt and the measures needed to reduce it. The bankers and their friends it seems have walked away, more or less unscathed. The public sector on the other hand is now feeling the ‘heat’.

The background to the video and podcasts presented here is a one-day workshop held in February 2010. The workshop had two main aims: first, it encouraged new actors from civil society groups to join a debate which had so far been dominated by insiders from the financial sector, academe and the regulatory community; second, it focused on underlying principles and practical prescriptions for reform, instead of adding to the plethora of ‘alternative’ accounts of the causes and consequences of financial crisis. The workshop aimed then to bring together, and to bring into dialogue, various civil society groups who can offer forward looking perspectives on how to make a difference. The three organising questions were:

What should be the fundamental goals of the financial system and of banking reform and how can these goals be achieved by markets, regulation and institutional redesign?
How might finance be made more accountable and how is the idea of social responsibility to be thought into financial market practices and policies at national and international levels?
How might a reformed financial services sector deal with social needs, from access to affordable credit to dealing with impact of climate change?

The workshop was successful but at the end the question was and is how to keep the conversation going? The series of audio podcasts offered here is our way of helping keep the ideas moving and circulating. As this site develops we will provide links to other relevant sites and a means of commenting and contributing to the debate. The overarching collective aim is to provide a space to think through, discuss and argue over the possibilities and problems of establishing a politics of alternative finance. The podcasts and links are a small contribution to the material and ideas needed to help resist the ‘business as usual’ model currently on offer.

For further information about this project contact Michael Pryke m.d.pryke@open.ac.uk.

Video

Introduction to Politics of Alternative Finance
by Prof Karel Williams (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)

Interview with Aditya Chakrabortty, Economics writer for the Guardian - Part 1
interviewed by Prof Karel Williams (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)

Interview with Aditya Chakrabortty, Economics writer for the Guardian - Part 2
interviewed by Prof Karel Williams (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)

Interview with Aditya Chakrabortty, Economics writer for the Guardian - Part 3
interviewed by Prof Karel Williams (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)

Tax Justice Network
by Richard Murphy (Director, Tax Research UK)

War on Want
by John Hillary (Executive Director, War on Want)

Responsible Credit
by Damon Gibbons (Head of Policy & Partnerships, Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion)

The role on international companies in controlling finance
by Nick Hildyard (CornerHouse)

The chilling irony of the financial crisis
by Nick Hildyard (CornerHouse)

Three points about the financial crisis
by Nick Hildyard (CornerHouse)

TUC and alternative finance
by Janet Williamson (TUC)

Rebalancing the economy
by Karel Williams (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)

Audio

Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian leader writer and columnist) interviewed by Prof Karel Williams. Aditya offers a sharp analysis of what led to the crisis as he begins to uncover the politics that fed and shaped the financial system prior to the crisis. Provoked by insightful questions, Aditya runs through and critiques the now commonsensical explanations of the crisis. He ends by pointing to the need for a fuller political and intellectual engagement if a politics of alternative finance is to gain traction. Listen to the audio clip

Ismail Erturk (Senior Lecturer in Banking, Manchester Business School) and Karel Williams review in a lively and informed discussion the recent efforts to implement banking reform in the US, the UK and Europe in the light of the crisis. Listen to the audio clip

Janet Williams (TUC) provides a Trades Union interpretation of the financial crisis. Janet assesses both the possibility of articulating a single vision of an alternative financial system and how a more socially focused set of criteria to underpin such a system might be given effective voice. She concludes by offering a strong critique of proposed cut backs in public sector expenditure and the likely immediate and future impact on the social and economic geographies of the UK. Listen to the audio clip

Richard Murphy (Director, Tax Research UK) articulates an easy to follow set of challenges to the orthodox claim that public debt is 'bad' and needs to be cut savagely. In countering those who argue that public sector debt is major concern he exposes the often ignored practices of tax avoidance and evasion, and the issues that need to be voiced and politicised in reviewing personal and corporate tax. Listen to the audio clip

John Hilary (Executive Director, War on Want), Damon Gibbons (Head of Policy & Partnerships, Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion) and Nick Dearden (Executive Director, Jubilee) in a wide ranging conversation. John, Damon and Nick identify where they believe the roots of the current financial crisis lies, the role of the IMF and World Trade Organisation in the shaping and framing the architecture of the current financial system. They end their conversation by offering some positive suggestions for ways out of the crisis. Listen to the audio clip

Peter Chowla (Bretton Woods Project) offers a critical reflection on the goals of the financial system. How should the international financial system be regulated? Who should regulate and to what ends?… are just some of the questions he asks in challenges us to think through what a new financial system - one that serves people rather than a select group of corporations - might look like and what its goals might be. Peter offers novel and internationally minded alternatives to current nationally focused, conservative, thinking. The crisis he reminds us touches not only those in Europe and the US but people in so-called developing countries. Listen to the audio clip

Nick Hildyard (CornerHouse) provides a much needed reminder that seeing the crisis as the result of deregulation is at best simplistic. He reminds us for example of the shadow banking system that emerged and grew out of the reregulation of the financial markets two decades ago, the agents involved and their part in the crisis. His critique raises questions about whose interests are represented in the dominant form of regulation we now have. How, Nick asks, can a regulatory agenda be built that leads to real structural change? This he argues is a political project. Listen to the audio clip

Useful Web Links

Acknowledgements

The workshop and podcasts were organised by Ismail Erturk, Johnna Mongomerie, Mick Moran, Michael Pryke and Karel Williams, and supported by funds from OpenSpace, CRESC and the Manchester Business School. The organisers are sincerely grateful to all those who participated in the workshop and the podcasts; their generosity and encouragement made it all possible. Thanks also to those who facilitated the making and editing of the podcasts and their posting onto this website.

Attachment	Size
Richard Murphy - Mind the tax gap (Tax Justice Network) (PDF document)	360.44 KB
John Hilary, War on Want, - A new vision for the global financial system (PDF document)	19.34 KB
EURODAD - A fair and transparent debt work-out procedure: 10 core civil society principles (PDF document)	110.95 KB
Nick Hildyard and Mark Mansley, CornerHouse - The campaigners guide to financial markets (PDF document)	786.33 KB
Nick Hildyard, CornerHouse - A (crumbling) wall of money: financial bricolage, derivatives and power (PDF document)	640.14 KB
Nick Hildyard, CornerHouse - Organising and financial markets: lessons for financial regulation (PDF document)	43.8 KB