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7.30 pm to 9 pm. Scotland’s Rentier Economy, its role in the New Enclosure, who owns Scotland’s Infrastructure (clue it’s not me and you), and why the price is WRONG for Scotland’s electricity. An Audience With Professor Brett Christophers.
Few people know more about the UK economy than Brett Christophers. And we are delighted that Professor Christophers is about to open the Festival of Economics in 2025. Born in Croydon outside London and now working at Uppsala University in Sweden, Professor Christophers can’t stop writing about the UK even when he sets out to write about the USA! In his book Rentier Economy, he was sure that the US was the most ‘capitalist’ nation. But after a little while of research, all roads led to the UK. In his 2020 book Rentier Capitalism, Brett wrote, “The UK has come to be seen as the world’s undisputed privatisation trailblazer.”
In his book The Price is Wrong, he discusses the electricity market in the UK and asks, “Why does the most expensive generator set the price received by all? It is a good question, eliciting much head-scratching at the time of writing!” To find out the answer to that head-scratcher and so much more—especially around ownership of land in Scotland and the challenges we face shifting to renewables in Scotland—join us in Leith.
Brett Christophers, a Professor of Human Geography at Uppsala University and author of several books on economics, including The Price Is Wrong and Our Lives In Their Portfolios—Why Asset Managers Own The World.
9.15 pm to 10.15 pm. THE ECONOMICS OF INDEPENDENCE
What different visions do we all have for an independent Scottish economy?
Our panel discusses their ideas for the economy of an independent Scotland. With, we hope, a heavy dose of audience involvement.
- Response to Brett Christophers’ thoughts on infrastructure ownership, land, renewable energy in Scotland the UK’s Rentier Capital ‘business model’
- Where would we be now had we won independence in 2014?
- What chance of a Just Transition?
- What does Grangemouth tell us about our economic history and our future?
- Is it all about growth?
- What formal institutions do we take with us, and what ones do we leave behind?
- What role for fiscal rules in a newly independent Scotland?
- Government deficit hawks or doves?
- Should we pay off the UK Treasury’s public debt or leave that to the UK Treasury?
- Will a wellbeing economy be well in sight?
Dr. Ewan Gibbs, Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow; Joyce McMillan, Theatre Critic and Political and Social Commentator at The Scotsman; and William Thomson, Economist and Founder of Scotonomics.
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