Goldsmiths lecturer to be key voice in Shadow Chancellor’s ‘New Economics’ debate

The UK’s Shadow Chancellor has invited Dr Johnna Montgomerie, the deputy director of Goldsmiths, University of London’s Political Economy Research Centre (PERC), to contribute toward a countrywide debate on the future of our economy.

John McDonnell MP is convening a series of public talks to broaden discussion around economics in Britain. Experts will present their views – which may not necessarily be those of the Labour Party or the Shadow Chancellor - at events across the country, and encourage questions from the public.

Dr Johnna Montgomerie will give a keynote speech in Norwich on Thursday 10 March, joined by University of Cambridge economist and PERC advisor Ha Joon Chang – author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, and Economics: The User’s Guide.

At The Space in Norwich city centre, Dr Montgomerie and Dr Chang will discuss their thoughts on creating a balanced and sustainable economy for the future. Mr McDonnell will host the event, with Norwich South Labour MP Clive Lewis to chair.

For those unable to travel to Norwich, the organisers will make a video available on YouTube.

Mr McDonnell’s The New Economics public lecture series has been designed to help curate new ideas for Labour’s economic policy in response to its election defeat, which was largely credited to its lack of economic credentials. Invited speakers to the series include Nobel Prize winner Joesph Stiglitz and leading UK-based economist and author Ann Pettifor.

Dr Johnna Montgomerie joined Goldsmiths in 2013 after six years at the University of Manchester’s Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change. She is an expert in household debt: mortgages, student loans, consumer credit, and payday lending, and its relationship to Anglo-American financialisation in our ‘age of austerity’.

Dr Montgomerie holds a BA in Political Science, an MA in Global Political Economy, a PhD in International Relations, and is deputy director of Goldsmiths’ PERC: a research centre launched in 2014 in parallel to the innovative new BA Politics Philosophy and Economics now offered by Goldsmiths.

PERC aims to challenge the idea that economics is a discipline separate from the other social sciences, aiming instead to combine economic knowledge with various other disciplinary approaches.

“I am delighted at the invitation because it demonstrates that, finally, after seven years of failing to establish a balanced and sustainable recovery the political establishment is interested in cultivating new ideas for solving the real life economic challenges of facing Britain’s future,” Dr Montgomerie says. “The public lecture format makes sure these debates happen in an open and democratic way.”

“On March 10th, I want to highlight how the public has been repeatedly told the 2008 financial crisis is over and the UK economy is in recovery. The economic reality is that we are more likely to see another major financial crisis before anything like a ‘balanced’ recovery.

“For a growing number of people this ‘recovery’ has not materialised in their everyday life: wages don’t keep up to the cost of living, debt levels are growing, the housing market is a mess and government services and support is steadily declining.”

“The 2008 financial crisis exposed policy makers' big knowledge gaps and ushered in a fundamental questioning of the discipline of economics which has dominated policy making for a generation. It has become clear we cannot solve the problems of financial crisis with the same economic policy ideas that created it in the first place.”

“The start of 2016 has renewed debate about the significance of the UK's household debt levels. What is largely overlooked in this commentary is how debt is transforming the economy, at first creating economic activity and then destroying it.

“Households are vastly unequal, some have benefited from debt-led growth while a growing number are made much worse off. This reality directly inhibits the ability to build a balanced and sustainable economy.”

PERC Director Dr Will Davies adds: "The fact that the Labour leadership is launching this nationwide debate on alternative economic perspectives and policies is very welcome. It is overdue recognition that the policies underpinning Britain's finance-driven economic model have failed, and new ones are needed. I'm delighted that PERC and Johnna Montgomerie will be contributing to this urgent public discussion.”

 

Find out more about the Political Economy Research Centre at Goldsmiths at perc.org.uk

Tickets for 'A balanced and sustainable economy' with Johnna Montgomerie and Ha Joon Chang at The Space, Norwich, can be booked through eventbrite