Protesters wear masks of George Osborne as they demonstrate opposite Downing Street ahead of the former Chancellor's Autumn Statement (2014). Anthony Devlin/PA Images. All rights reserved.The UK is feeling pretty divided at the moment, yet there is one thing that is likely to unite people across the political spectrum: a contempt for bankers. Back in 2015 ‘the deficit’ was a powerful concept used to promote the case for austerity. We needed, we kept being reminded, to “balance the books”. The promise was that we were all ‘in it together’, but the pain has turned out to be far from evenly distributed.
In a memorable article, the economist Simon Wren-Lewis beautifully unpicked the concept of ‘the deficit’ and its advancement of the case for, as he called it, the “austerity con”. Given its profound consequences, which are only now becoming fully visible, it is not surprising that the anger continues to simmer even when these ideas are no longer at the forefront of political debate. Talk of deficits and austerity may have faded into the background – although, as the political journalist Helen Lewis has pointed out, they have not actually disappeared from the policy agenda – but the banker still remains a figure of disdain and suspicion.
Into this divided, baffling and tense political and economic landscape, Ann Pettifor’s neat intervention, The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of Bankers (Verso 2017), adds clarity about the role played by money. Aimed at enabling more informed debate, Pettifor carefully unpicks what is happening with money today. This is a short book heavy with credibility. Its key premise is that the financial crisis of 2007-09 created the possibilities for inequality to grow. As this suggests, this is not just a book about money, it is a book about power and control.
