Money, Finance and the Economy

This event is open to IIPP's students and faculty only

Hosted at UCL IIPP on Wednesday 20th November 2024 from 14:00 - 15:30 (GMT) for a talk by Fran Boait.

The global financial system is a key driver of inequalities and climate change. It drives racial, gender, generational, geographical, income, and wealth inequality, as well as indebtedness and social crises. This system has led to highly financialised economies leading to inherently unstable economic systems dependent on rising asset prices. Since the 2008 global financial crash, central banks and regulators have shifted from facilitating the expansion of finance, to being essentially risk managers of an inherently unstable system, maintaining highly financialised economies. As the cost of living, energy and environmental crises escalate, the inherently political nature of the money and banking system becomes increasingly clear. Our governments and central banks have allowed our money and payments system to become structurally dependent on private financial firms in order to function. Our key democratic institutions therefore subsidise and enable a handful of unaccountable private banks and finance firms to wield huge power over the shape of our economy and society, and to uphold an inequitable and unjust economic system. The majority of household name banks have become speculative investment funds built on top of critical infrastructure (the payments system, banking and financial services). This structure is designed to extract subsidies from the rest of society and ensure big banks remain ‘too big to fail’. Big finance maintains this situation by wielding a disproportionate amount of power over our politicians and political systems, eroding our democracy through direct financial ties, lobbying access, revolving doors, promoting false narratives, and opposing reforms that would reduce the economy’s structural dependence on financial firms.

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