After more than 30 years, the printing presses have finally halted for the left-wing magazine. KATE HUDSON pays tribute to the always thought-provoking publication and explains how the editorial team are inviting feedback and comment on their continued online operations
‘Where’s the money coming from’?
Labour’s fiscal policy is already in trouble. But simply printing money is not a solution, says the Marx Memorial Library and Workers School
MONEY TALKS: A general view of City workers on Bank Street at Canary Wharf, London, 2007
Why is the Labour government so addicted to giving government jobs to Tories when it spent so long trying to oust them? In the hope the favour is returned the next time the Tories return to power, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
MARC WADSWORTH reports from the meeting to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre 65 years ago
Despite the US withdrawal from Ukraine and economic self-harm from sanctions, European centrists maintain their bellicosity to justify military spending and distract from neoliberalism's failures, writes PRABHAT PATNAIK
Netanyahu’s failed attempt to replace Shin Bet’s chief violates longstanding Israeli political taboos, as the apartheid state’s internal power struggle spirals to a new level of crisis while Gaza burns, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Following the historic ban on companies profiting from children’s care, Unison Cymru calls for transparency in implementing the changes and extending the reform to create a truly national, profit-free care service, says MARK TURNER
The left must confront both far-right bigotry and the undeniable problems the exploitation of migrant workers by the ruling class creates — but there are few lessons from the global left on how to strike this balance, laments NICK WRIGHT
CANVASSING for Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 a constant question was “Where’s the money coming from?”
One answer could be British money — sterling — a “hard” currency, “hard” because it can be used for trade across the globe, between every country with other “tough guy” currencies. Top of the list for total world foreign exchange reserves is the US dollar, with 57 per cent, the euro at 20 per cent, Japanese yen 5.81 per cent is no 3, sterling is no 4 with £588 billion 5.81 per cent. While movements in the value of hard currencies occur constantly, over time, they are mainly stable.
But money can itself fall victim to crises. In the US between 1980 and 1994 such crises were caused by excess land and house loans, speculation and poor underwriting. Well over 2,000 US banks bailed out or folded. Key to survival was the strength of the dollar and piles of “new greenbacks” with, crucially, political support from the US state.
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