Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy: The Chancellor has a mighty lot of sins to confess LAST week’s Budget was as depressing for Scotland, for Wales, for Northern Ireland, as it was for most ordinary working people in every country

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Why won’t so much of the left believe in the sovereign power to make money? There are days when I genuinely wonder what parts of the left think the state is for. The capacity to create money is the most fundamental power any modern government possesses. It is the basis of its...

Why won’t so much of the left believe in the sovereign power to make money? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/12...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why the UK budget system is broken — and how to fix it

Rachel Reeves has given us a masterclass in how NOT to run a budget.

We got leaks, U-turns, political theatre, but almost no real economic planning. In this video, I explain what’s gone wrong and how we could get a rational budget.

We deserve better than this.

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Questions to ask a left-wing critic of MMT Some on the Marxist left of politics, including those of that persuasion who have now entered the Greens in England and Wales with the clear aim of pushing it in a Marxist, class warfare-based directi...

Questions to ask a lcritic of MMT www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

MMT matters because it reveals power – and gives us back the right to choose I think modern monetary theory (MMT) matters. That is not because it is perfect, because no theory is. Instead, it is because it explains something that almost no one in mainstream economics has ever ...

MMT matters because it reveals power – and gives us back the right to choose www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why do we still have poverty in UK?

Why does poverty still exist in one of the richest countries on earth? In this video, I explain how antisocial neoliberal economics deliberately creates poverty.
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YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Rachel Reeves’ budget: Who really governs Britain?

Rachel Reeves' Budget was a damp squib, delivering austerity by stealth. There was no vision, and no investment. There was just fear of the City of London. In this video, I ask why the Chancellor has surrendered economic power to finance. youtu.be/6pTpT_uB_4M?...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy The UK is cursed: how finance destroyed our economy

The UK is cursed: how finance destroyed our economy youtu.be/WUy_Hl-sD6Q?...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Rachel Reeves’ budget: a tale of disaster hidden in the detail

Rachel Reeves says her budget delivers stability. The Office for Budget Responsibility's charts tell a very different story. High interest rates, low investment, falling profitability, rising unemployment and no improvement in household incomes.

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YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why Rachel Reeves just failed the British public

Rachel Reeves’ 2025 Budget has already collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. In this video, I explain why tax rises on ordinary people, baseless growth forecasts, and a refusal to tax wealth fairly mean this Budget will fail. youtu.be/xvdFsOT6WPk?...

Why is so much of the left economically incompetent? LabourList published an article last week under the headline “Bond markets explained: How in hock are we – and can we break free?” The article began with a question that should trouble anyone who care...

Why is so much of the left economically incompetent? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Is Britain at the peak of a great financial wave?

In this podcast, I talk with John Christensen, co-founder of the Tax Justice Network, about whether Britain can escape the final stage of a decades-long inflationary cycle without social and political rupture.

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Richard Murphy: What Scotland needs from the Budget (but won’t get) There is one thing that can be said for sure about Rachel Reeves’s Budget on Wednesday and that is that there will be remarkably few references to…

Richard Murphy: What Scotland needs from the Budget (but won’t get) www.thenational.scot/politics/256...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 9: Essential economic reforms Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewhe...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 9: Essential economic reforms www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11... My alternative budget is drawing towards its close.

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy How ultra-processed food became a corporate-engineered health crisis

Ultra-processed foods now make up at least half of all food sold in UK supermarkets. The Lancet has described them as a “corporate-engineered public health crisis.”

We can change this — but only if we confront corporate power.

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Britain’s oil, gas and finance curses In 1993, the economist Richard Auty coined the term “resource curse” to describe the paradox that countries with abundant natural resources often grow more slowly and less equitably than those without...

Britain’s oil, gas and finance curses www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11... Why is the UK failing? It's not because we are no good: it's because the government squandered oil and then bowed down to finance. We never had a hope once our governments put them first.

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 8: Abolishing national insurance Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewh...

A radical budget requires a radical tax reform, and getting rid of our regressive national insurance charges, which are an absurd tax on jobs when jobs are what we want to promote, makes sense in that case. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why the government is nothing like a household

Politicians constantly claim that the government must “live within its means”, just like any family.

In this video, I explain why the household analogy is not only wrong — it is the foundation of austerity.

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The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 7: The politics of care Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewh...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 7: The politics of care www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11... Governments have not cared about people for far too long. In my draft alternative Budget, I would change that, for good. Politics is nothing if it is not about care.

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why Britain no longer makes things — and how we rebuild

For forty years, we were told that Britain didn’t need manufacturing — finance would make us rich. That experiment failed. We import more than we export, our towns are hollowed out, and our prosperity rests on hot money and property bubbles rather than what we make..

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The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 6: Addressing issues in housing Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewhe...

In the sixth part of my alternative budget, I tackle essential reforms in the mortgage market and social housing. When housing insecurity exists all around us, whilst prices are excessive on so many fronts, housing market and finance reforms are essential. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why Rachel Reeves’s first budget cannot survive the coming financial meltdown

Rachel Reeves is presenting a budget built on assumptions that simply cannot survive the world we are about to enter.
We're facing a financial crisis, and that is not in her plans.

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The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 5: Reforming the UK’s Savings System Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewh...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 5: Reforming the UK’s Savings System www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11... The money to transform the UK exists; it's just locked into a savings system that makes no use of it. That has to change.

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why governments across the West are collapsing

Across the West, governments are failing. Trump, Starmer, Macron, Merz and others are losing authority at the very moment crises demand leadership. Far-right movements are fracturing. Neoliberalism has run out of ideas.

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YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Is the market crash already starting?

Financial markets across the world are flashing red.

The S&P 500 has finally turned down after weeks of irrational optimism. The FTSE 100 is sliding. Gold is falling. Bitcoin is collapsing.

Are we ready for the consequences? I’m not sure we are.

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The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 3: Creating a new fiscal framework Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewh...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 3: Creating a new fiscal framework www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy What does profit really mean, and why do we get it wrong?

What does profit really mean, and why do we get it wrong? youtu.be/3OY8YxqUB3I?... Profit can be good if it serves society. But when profit becomes the only goal, trust collapses, workers suffer, and the planet pays the price.

Richard Murphy: Should we believe in fairies or a credible Budget from Rachel Reeves? A QUESTION came up in a conversation I had late last week. The person

Richard Murphy: Should we believe in fairies or a credible Budget from Rachel Reeves? www.thenational.scot/politics/256...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 2: Understanding tax and ‘borrowing’ Rachel Reeves will be presenting her Budget on November 26, if the Labour government of which she is a part lasts that long. I will be commenting on that Budget on the day on BBC Radio 2, and elsewh...

The Alternative Budget 2025, Part 2: Understanding tax and ‘borrowing’ www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why top-tier professionals resist change – and why it matters

Why top-tier professionals resist change – and why it matters youtu.be/qi6ypRt3ekw?...