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The last day…

Having been, in one form or another – student and then staff – at my current institution since the mid-1980s, 2022 is a point of inflexion in my life. New directions, indeed, are beckoning and I am, for once, looking forward to change.

Nonetheless, having spent the last 34 years working at this place, it will be a bit peculiar not to be. The last couple of months have entailed emptying my office, which was no small task – but mostly accomplished with my trusty bike trailer, hauling a box at a time home. It was mostly books, of course.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

Posted in Uncategorized.


Poverty kills

The last few days have seen some compelling commentary on the issue of poverty in the UK, against a background of rising foodbank use and the ‘cost of living crisis’, reflecting substantial increases in inflation (especially evident in energy prices).

Professor Michael Marmot is director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity and his comment piece in The Guardian – Studying health inequalities has been my life’s work. What’s about to happen in the UK is unprecedented – is in part a damning indictment of government policy over the last decade, given the 2010 Marmot Review into health inequalities in England (10 year review here). But in it he highlights the significance of where the UK now is, and the consequences for its citizens. It also reads like a ticklist for aspects of themes we have explored in ECON2548 New Directions in Economics over the last year.

Food writer Jack Monroe – maybe best known for Cooking on a Bootstrap – published their latest blog post (today) (it chimes completely with Marmot’s concerns) and is a laser-guided zinger of a critique of common misconceptions about poverty and food, amidst the wider issues of poverty in the UK. A must read.

Posted in behavioural, economics, ethics.


Climate change as a moral catastrophe – David Wallace-Wells

This article – Climate reparations – by Wallace-Wells is one of the most compelling discussions of the issues of inequality and climate change that I have read recently. And it is pretty damning on the technological optimism and creative accounting that is meant to allow progress to ‘net zero’, as well as the ‘magical thinking’ of “nature-based solutions” like tree planting. It is not without hope, but that hope relies on unprecedented commitments by governments to spend, and “The question is just, How much do we want to spend to reverse the damage we’ve created? And that is an ethical and philosophical and political decision. It’s not a technology question or even an economics question” (Julio Friedmann, who is a direct carbon capture evangelist quoted by Wallace-Wells).

Posted in environment.