That was fun

My day in London was one of two halves.

The morning was with some of those attending the House of the People citizens’ assembly, and I have to say that I admired the diversity of those present, their curiosity, their diligence, openness, and desire to work in a spirit of curiosity to explore viable solutions to the problems that we face right now.

There were groups addressing the crisis in Gaza, climate change, activism, and the group that Steve Keen and I spoke to on wealth, inequality, and how we might address these issues.

Steve and I had not worked as a double act before, but we fell into a routine pretty quickly, each bringing out different aspects of an issue to answer the questions posed to us.

On occasion, Steve was more technical than I was, but I also think that probably reversed in the case of tax, whilst we very much batted together on issues around universal basic income, job guarantees, the economics of climate change, and some other such issues.

It was, I have to say, a lot of fun, and it would not have been if those who were attending had not been so curious. I will do it again, with or without Steve, because what was clear was that there was a mutual learning process going on, and I always enjoy them.

I genuinely have no idea what the recommendations of this group will be as yet. It was not for Steve or me to influence that. We had done our bit by lunchtime, after which we parted company with the group, which included quite a number of old friends and acquaintances whom I was pleased to meet again.

Steve and I then decided that it was most definitely time for us to swap notes because it had been two years since we last saw each other. We did, as a consequence, adjourn to an attractive and well-located independent coffee shop, where we sat outside to catch up with our own news and to discuss economics in some depth.

Steve had brought along a couple of iPhones with him, plus microphones and tripods, and set them up to record our conversation. If any usable material comes out of that recording process, then we might share it; however, I stress that I don’t know this yet.

We covered a wide range of issues connected to economics, political economy, tax, MMT, and more besides, including a lot of our work on social media, which I very much doubt is worth sharing, but which was of advantage to both of us.

I left Steve refreshed by our conversation, as I think he was.

As I said at the beginning, overall this was a lot of fun.