Over 30 economics teachers and researchers (including PRIME’s Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith) have signed an open letter welcoming Jeremy Corbyn’s economic policies, which open up key areas for debate, and fundamentally challenge “the shared assumptions behind the narrow range of policies advocated by both the Conservative government and the other Labour leadership candidates.”
The letter was first published yesterday at Open Democracy. The full text, and list of signatories, is as follows.
“The recent statement from Jeremy Corbyn that “austerity is a policy choice not economic necessity” provides a welcome return to serious discussion in the Labour leadership debate. Therefore, the assertions that Corbyn is a “danger” who is causing harm to the Labour Party and the public in general is quite surprising and inappropriate (for example, see FT View 15 August, that Mr Corbyn’s candidacy brings “potential harm to…British public life”).
Many of Corbyn’s policies are advocated by prominent economists and commentators. An example is his proposal to fund public investment by the sale of bonds to the Bank of England. Yet, until now, politicians competing to hold the centre ground have largely ignored such policies or cast them as unthinkable.
Corbyn’s proposals should be welcomed even by his opponents for stimulating serious discussion of crucial issues such as the role of the public sector in investment, management of debt and money, and how to tackle inequality. It is to Corbyn’s credit that he has broadened the policy discussion so that the shared assumptions behind the narrow range of policies advocated by both the Conservative government and the other Labour leadership candidates are now being debated.
Signed by the following teachers and researchers in economics:
Victoria Chick, University College London
Susan Himmelweit, Open University
Malcolm Sawyer, University of Leeds
Annina Kaltenbrunner, University of Leeds
Gary Dymski, University of Leeds
Ruth Pearson, University of Leeds
Hugo Radice, University of Leeds
Ann Pettifor, Prime Economics
Jeremy Smith, Prime Economics
Steve Keen, Kingston University
Eva Karwowski, Kingston University
Engelbert Stockhammer, Kingston University
Alfredo Saad, SOAS
Guy Standing SOAS
John Weeks, SOAS
Carlos Oya, SOAS
George Irvin, SOAS
Ioana Negru, SOAS
Chris Cramer, SOAS
Jo Michell, University of the West of England
Susan Newman, University of the West of England
Daniela Gabor, University of the West of England
Andrew Mearman, University of the West of England
Ozlem Onaran, University of Greenwich
Jeff Powell, University of Greenwich
Mehmet Ugur, University of Greenwich
Giovanni Cozzi, University of Greenwich
Maria Nikolaidi, University of Greenwich
Simon Mohun, Queen Mary University
Neil Lancastle, DeMontfort University
James Meadway, City University
John Grahl, Middlesex University
Rhys Jenkins, University of East Anglia
Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS