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Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 5/n Adding here a piece a group of us co-wrote at an #anthropology
workshop, on “Understanding Growth”. This was experimental - co-writing on the spot! -, but i do come back to it: we distinguish between“Growth rooted in life” from “growth rooted in numbers”. Capitalism is pure number thinking.

Obviously there are many real experts on all this (Marx, Pikkety for a start), this piece is left field! But just thought of it again in this context.

undisciplinedenvironments.org/

32 comments
Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 6/n This is important: in contrast to most other Central Banks, which simply sit out losses, the Bank of England has an indemnity arrangement requiring the Treasury to cover its losses. This has resulted in £38-£40 billion going in effect from taxpayers to private banks in 2023, and same this year. Adding a second hashtag: #SEEtheOligarchy

FT article only for subscribers, I know (i get it through work). Here screenshots of key passages.

on.ft.com/4bUtp80

But fiscal space is a political construct, as Liz
Truss painfully learnt. Who you tax, how and
what you spend, and how you defend yourself
against the bond vigilantes policing your
moves are all political choices, informed by
ideological visions and constrained by
institutional set-ups. The Bank of England's
role is rarely visible, by design.
The Bank is supposed to stay out of fiscal
affairs. Yet its invisible hand is now depleting
the Treasury coffers to boost commercial bank
profits. This is the consequence of the
institutional arrangement for quantitative
easing, through the Asset Purchase Facility
(APF) run by the Bank of England. Unique in
the world, the APF has cost the UK Treasury
around £38bn in 2023 and a projected £40bn
in 2024. The Bank of England has projected
that under the "optimistic scenario, the
Treasury will pay the APF around 110bn
throughout a 2025-2030 government, and net
costs could reach £230bn by 2033, beyond
Labour's wildest green spending dreams.
There should be public outrage: the APF's
winners are private banks, whose pre-tax
profits in the first nine months of 2023
reached £41bn, roughly the amount received
from the APF and nearly double on the
previous year, at a time when Britain endures
the longest hit to living standards since
records began. In turn, Bailey has refused to
change the APF mechanics, holding up the
totem of central bank independence that
terrifies politicians.
But this is not a matter of independence. The
Treasury pays the Bank by choice and
institutional design, with no solid theoretical
justification. The Bank could simply follow the
established practice at other large central
banks who bear the costs of paying interest on
reserves. That the Bank chooses otherwise
points to the bigger stakes here: Britain is
going through an extreme version of what the
political theorist Wendy Brown called
"undoing the demos", where unelected
technocrats in control over monetary-fiscal
dynamics are chstructing future governments
Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 7/n Now something different - this really is a rag bag, really just adding things as they come along, occur to me, no careful crafting! Just things that enable you to trace and understand how money flows to the rich, how accumulation works. So here, a piece, with this fantastic map, of second homes in the UK, in #Cornwall in particular. Key arena of widening #WealthGap #Inequality

theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/m

#SEEtheOligarchy

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 7/n Now something different - this really is a rag bag, really just adding things as they come along, occur to me, no careful crafting! Just things that enable you to trace and understand how money flows to the rich, how accumulation works. So here, a piece, with this fantastic map, of second homes in the UK, in #Cornwall in particular. Key arena of widening #WealthGap #Inequality

Map from this article, showing second home home ownership across the UK, with particularly high concentrations in coastal areas like Wales and Cornwall

Guardian graphic. Source: Census 2021, ONS. Note: count is by MSOA, a sub-unit of a local authority designated by a number, eg Cornwall 007. MSOAs with a numerical holiday home count below 10 are excluded (grey on the map). Local authority boundaries shown in white
Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 8/n Adding here a (somewhat sweary, apologies) Politics Joe interview with Gary Stevenson (see 1/n), talking about the rapid increase in inequality in the UK and the world, and also about how we need to make people SEE THIS. They need to realise that the reason their lives are shit, that they can't get houses, is growing inequality. Because the system is set up to make money flow to the rich. Everyone needs to understand this. #SEETheOligarchy

youtube.com/watch?v=DVvoyRpxG-

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 8/n Adding here a (somewhat sweary, apologies) Politics Joe interview with Gary Stevenson (see 1/n), talking about the rapid increase in inequality in the UK and the world, and also about how we need to make people SEE THIS. They need to realise that the reason their lives are shit, that they can't get houses, is growing inequality. Because the system is set up to make money flow to the rich. Everyone needs to understand this. #SEETheOligarchy

Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 9/n So far the has been more about who the money flows towards, but now also some posts about who it flows away from. Again, random collection, no comprensive analysis - just snippets of what’s going on!

Yesterday I listened to this really heartbreaking and deeply worrying programme about the rapid rise in bankruptcies in the UK. Of course we see this all around us - all those closing restaurants, Debenhams etc. the #DeathOfTheHighStreet speeding up

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001x55h

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 9/n So far the has been more about who the money flows towards, but now also some posts about who it flows away from. Again, random collection, no comprensive analysis - just snippets of what’s going on!

Yesterday I listened to this really heartbreaking and deeply worrying programme about the rapid rise in bankruptcies in the UK. Of course we see this all around us - all those closing restaurants, Debenhams etc. the #DeathOfTheHighStreet speeding up

Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 10/n But note the title ⬆️ - what is going on here? Turns out quite a bit of of the program was about how “Zombie firms”were kept alive artificially for years by low interest rates; that it’s good if they die and others take over. Really struck and appalled by utter coldness, distance and dehumanisation by people who say this - as @PippiPunkstrumpf just said, they really think of others just as numbers (see also our “Understanding Growth” piece above 5/n).

Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 11/n Another key area money flows away from are local councils and social services and, therefore, the young and, again, community. In Birmingham, whose council declared bankruptcy in 2023, provisions for children will be cut by £52m in 2024-25 and £63m in 2025-26; youth services by £2.3m; and eleven community centres are being sold off. As John Harris says:

The state is abandoning its people

#UKPolitics #Birmingham #Austerity

theguardian.com/commentisfree/

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 11/n Another key area money flows away from are local councils and social services and, therefore, the young and, again, community. In Birmingham, whose council declared bankruptcy in 2023, provisions for children will be cut by £52m in 2024-25 and £63m in 2025-26; youth services by £2.3m; and eleven community centres are being sold off. As John Harris says:

Screenshot of top of this article

Opinion
Birmingham's cuts reveal
the ugly truth about
Britain in 2024: the state
is abandoning its people
John Harris
First it was austerity. Now it's something
even worse: the suggestion that people
didn't need vital local services to begin with
Sun 17 Mar 2024 13.40 GMT
& Share
692
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵12/n Of course, things were never rosy for everyone. Nevertheless, key shared assumptions about the #commongood informed post war public spending and that is all eroding now.

“Continuing austerity does not just kill people’s services; it has long since warped most political debates about what we should expect from the state. In lots of places, squalor, mess and festering social problems are now seen as the norm. “
#TheCrumble

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 13/n and i have to mention UK universities too, since I am directly affected myself (see #AcademicVenting).

40% of UK universities are in debt, with major reduncancies right now (incl at Goldsmiths). All in arts, humanities and social sciences. All of this is crumbling, with too little money flowing into it. Another industry, another #CommonGood
being eroded. Check out this constantly updated tally. #TheCrumble

qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 13/n and i have to mention UK universities too, since I am directly affected myself (see #AcademicVenting).

40% of UK universities are in debt, with major reduncancies right now (incl at Goldsmiths). All in arts, humanities and social sciences. All of this is crumbling, with too little money flowing into it. Another industry, another #CommonGood
being eroded. Check out this constantly updated tally. #TheCrumble

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 14/n Just realised the title of this really excellent article by Sam Knight is actually perhaps the real theme of this 🧵:

What Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule have Done to Britain

As Sam says, #Austerity is not even talked about so much anymore, but it has just broken the #UK . Please do read the whole piece, so well written, so damning (and I’ve even managed to ignore an aside criticism of Corbyn - usually makes me hate any writer! 😊)

newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 14/n Just realised the title of this really excellent article by Sam Knight is actually perhaps the real theme of this 🧵:

What Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule have Done to Britain

As Sam says, #Austerity is not even talked about so much anymore, but it has just broken the #UK . Please do read the whole piece, so well written, so damning (and I’ve even managed to ignore an aside criticism of Corbyn - usually makes me hate any writer! 😊)

Screenshot of top of this article=
THE
NEW YORKER
WHAT HAVE FOURTEEN
YEARS OF
CONSERVATIVE RULE
DONE TO BRITAIN?
Living standards have fallen. The country is
exhausted by constant drama. But the U.K. can't
move on from the Tories without facing up to the
damage that has occurred.
By Sam Knight
March 25, 2024
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 15/n

“The average worker is now £14,000 worse off per year than if earnings had continued to rise at pre-crisis rates—it is the worst period for wage growth since the Napoleonic Wars. “Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this. This is what failure looks like.” “

A Herefordshire case workers has developed a phrase to describe people needing help, “for her paperwork”:

“Overwhelming Distress”

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 16/n Back to who the money flows towards:

Nobody had a better year than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth has increased by more than any other billionaire, up by nearly $113 billion over the past 12 months, to an estimated $177 billion #AI #Meta

forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/202

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 17/n and here the whole Forbes Rich List for 2024. The planet has a record 2,781 billionaires now who are worth a record $14.2 trillion.

forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 18/n

Spotify too. Everywhere money is being sucked out (or who has the agency here really? More in next post) from artists to billionaires

mstdn.ca/@ned/1122498035182614

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 19/n

This is what I am thinking about now. Not at all the first to say this or even think it myself, but just to emphasise: better not to think of billionaires as evil scheming money grabbers - i mean, they are - but as vessels for money, capitalism itself. Like, sci-fi wise, human bodies that look like humans from the outside but have been taken over by an AI - money itself. And it’s ruling everything!

mastodon.green/@pvonhellermann

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 21/n Suddenly remembered that at the end of 2022 I posted this here. So embarrassing - cringe, as my children would say! That I actually wrote “the new world is almost born”. No it’s not. The time of monsters is in full, full swing, the new world really is not born yet. All we can do is to keep on trying to organise to make it happen one day. #Gramsci

mastodon.green/@pvonhellermann

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 22/n Last point and then I will stop for today: saw #Hamilton a few weeks ago and was really struck by how then it was possible to start a revolution, raise an army and WIN! Like, that would just be totally impossible now. The imbalance in military power, just as in wealth (and control over media etc etc) is just so VAST now. It’s impossible to beat. That’s why noone really even tries anymore.

Photo from a performance of Hamilton. Man in blue coat and tripod hat at front, raising sword.

Not my Photo, taken from this website
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 23/n. Sorry- one more! Just to end on a less bleak note: seeing this toot reminded me that, of course, that billionaire military might AI bleak dystopia is real,IS our world, but there is actually an even bigger reality here every day, in all of us, since forever. Which is that the vast majority of us humans basically just want a simple life, with family, friends, barbecues (ok maybe not perfect example but since it’s here). #FrugalAbundance

ohai.social/@archaeohistories/

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 23/n. Sorry- one more! Just to end on a less bleak note: seeing this toot reminded me that, of course, that billionaire military might AI bleak dystopia is real,IS our world, but there is actually an even bigger reality here every day, in all of us, since forever. Which is that the vast majority of us humans basically just want a simple life, with family, friends, barbecues (ok maybe not perfect example but since it’s here). #FrugalAbundance

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 24/n. Like, watching the blue tits busy building their nest in the box outside our kitchen window, feeding their young, flying back and forth: most of us humans are so much closer to them than to scheming billionaires.

And: this forever (i hope forever- in peril due to other!) reality - of birds, trees, parents hugging children, just enjoying being together - this is perhaps the real reality. Or at least always also there. Mustn’t forget!

Nice photo of a pair of blue tits, outside their box, surrounded by green leaves. Not my own, from this website:

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to/wildlife-gardening/garden-bird-nestbox-guide
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 25/n back to a reality most of us in the UK inhabit on a daily basis: the crumbling public sector. Found this report on NHS dentistry’s struggle for survival really very moving just now. #NHS #dentistry #UKpolitics

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001y0kf

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 26/n An outstanding review by Will Davies (my Goldsmiths colleague) of Brett Christopher’s “The Price is Wrong”: about our neoliberal political economy (using a Braudelian distinction btw “the market” and “capitalism” - SO useful) and how this explain why investments in fossil fuels continue to vastly outstrip those in renewables. Key point: Capitalism IS rent-seeking.
#ClimateEmergency

lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/wi

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 26/n An outstanding review by Will Davies (my Goldsmiths colleague) of Brett Christopher’s “The Price is Wrong”: about our neoliberal political economy (using a Braudelian distinction btw “the market” and “capitalism” - SO useful) and how this explain why investments in fossil fuels continue to vastly outstrip those in renewables. Key point: Capitalism IS rent-seeking.
#ClimateEmergency

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵27/n The piece btw contains a necessary critique of my sci-fi “money rules” take a few posts above. Although i still like the idea of all this being a kind of superorganism. But yes, it is about power - political economy, not just economy.

The effects of this economic settlement
are all around us, in the spiralling wealth
of financial elites, the dilapidated public
realm, unaffordable housing and contin-
ued investment in technologies - such as
coal-powered generators - that harm us.
Attributing all of this to 'the market', as if
nobody designed it and there are no centres
of power within it, prolongs the failure to
understand it. Capitalism, unlike markets,
has command centres. Capitalism, unlike
markets, shrouds itself in complexity. On
the other hand, the implication of The Price
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 28/n But honestly, just read this piece - everything in this 🧵 in one brilliant analysis. And, crucially, using to explain lack of climate action. This is what everyone, each one of us, needs to think about! “Ecologically speaking, neoliberalism couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

Here Christopher’s book itself:
The Price is Wrong. Why Capitalism Won’t Save The Planet.

versobooks.com/en-gb/products/

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 28/n But honestly, just read this piece - everything in this 🧵 in one brilliant analysis. And, crucially, using to explain lack of climate action. This is what everyone, each one of us, needs to think about! “Ecologically speaking, neoliberalism couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 29/n Another overlap with #AcademicVenting 🧵- because it’s all of a piece! Because the crisis in HE is a key phenomenon in all this!

This great piece by Jessica Wildfire really needs to be read in full, but this extract most apt here:

“Universities aren't institutions of knowledge anymore. They're assets. They're revenue streams. If they're not generating money for the top, then they only pose a threat, and they have to be weakened and destroyed.”

mastodon.ar.al/@aral/112359018

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 29/n Another overlap with #AcademicVenting 🧵- because it’s all of a piece! Because the crisis in HE is a key phenomenon in all this!

This great piece by Jessica Wildfire really needs to be read in full, but this extract most apt here:

“Universities aren't institutions of knowledge anymore. They're assets. They're revenue streams. If they're not generating money for the top, then they only pose a threat, and they have to be weakened and destroyed.”

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 30/n

Wow. As Bregman says: Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the richest Americans. For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.

Look at 1980 - I do continue to think that *everything* could have been different if Carter hadn’t lost to Reagan.

Graph showing US income tax rates for the richest plummeting from 56% in 1960 to 23% in 2018 - lower than working class America s 
Rutger Bregman &
@rcbregman
Follow
Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the
richest Americans. For the first time in history,
billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than
working-class Americans.
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 31/n I think the graph came from this New York Times piece but don’t have a subscription so can’t check.

nytimes.com/interactive/2024/0

Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 32/n Watched “The Founder” on Netflix yesterday, about McDonalds. Really interesting- would recommend it. Particularly how the real breakthrough came when Kroc, advised by Sonneborn, went for real estate. Checked it on Wikipedia:

“McDonald's present-day real-estate holdings represent $37.7 billion on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and 35% of its annual gross revenue.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_

In 1956, Ray Kroc met Harry J. Sonneborn, a
former vice president of finance for Tastee-
Freez, who offered an idea to accelerate the
growth and investment grade of Kroc's
planned McDonald's operation: to own the
real estate upon which future franchises
would be built. Kroc hired Sonneborn and his
plan was executed by forming a separate
company, Franchise Realty Corp, to hold
McDonald's real estate. The new company
signed leases and procured mortgages for
both land and buildings, passing these costs
on to the franchisee with a 20-40% markup
and a reduced initial deposit of $950. [12][131
The "Sonneborn model" of real-estate
ownership within the franchise persists to
this day, and may be the most important
financial decision in the company's history.
McDonald's present-day real-estate
holdings represent $37.7 billion on its
balance sheet, about 99% of the company's
assets and 35% of its annual gross revenue.
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 33/n

Today an overlap with #ClimateDiary: British farmers are struggling due to climate change, Brexit AND supermarket power:

Most farmers receive less than 1% of the profit made from the food they grow. Of the 20% food inflation experienced by the public a minuscule proportion made its way back to the farmer. Tesco made a £2.3bn profit last year, while 49% of fruit and veg farmers fear they’ll be out of business before the end of this one.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 33/n

Today an overlap with #ClimateDiary: British farmers are struggling due to climate change, Brexit AND supermarket power:

Most farmers receive less than 1% of the profit made from the food they grow. Of the 20% food inflation experienced by the public a minuscule proportion made its way back to the farmer. Tesco made a £2.3bn profit last year, while 49% of fruit and veg farmers fear they’ll be out of business before the end of this one.

Opinion
I'm a British farmer.
Here's the scary truth
about what's happening
to our crops
Guy Singh-
Watson
The climate crisis is making the farming
business unsustainable - and without
support for us, food security will suffer too
Guy Singh-Watson is the founder of
organic veg box company Riverford
Follow Guy Singh-Watson
0))
Notifications off
258
Wed 8 May 2024 15.26 BST
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵34/n #ClimateDiary

We had a veg box for 12 years from Hankham Organics; 3 weeks ago we suddenly had a note with our box that they were closing, as it wasn’t working financially any more. 😢😢😢

And a fish merchant who we got smoked salmon for Christmas from closed this year too, for the same reasons. Plus Goldsmiths’ woes of course (#AcademicVenting). So many good, small organisations struggling and ending.

Photo of a veg box from above, eggs on top, note saying they were closing.
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 36/n Here a positive, progressive use of money flows:

1400+ Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools have pledged to withhold all “financial, programmatic, and academic support” until school meets demands related to divestment, student discipline, and community safety.
Group website says over $63 million of donations at risk. #Gaza #studentprotests

Thousands of Columbia University Alumni Pledge to Withhold All Contributions to School Until Pro-Palestinian Student Demands are Met
New York, NY - A group representing thousands of Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools and across decades of graduating classes has pledged to withhold all "financial, programmatic, and
academic support" in an open letter to Columbia University's President Minouche Shafik and its trustees until the university meets demands related to divestment, student discipline, and community
safety.
In the letter released this week, alumni estimate that the pledge puts $41 million in financial contributions at risk. It was issued in addition to petitions calling for a stop to the unjust expulsion and
suspensions of student protesters, and nearly two score letters previously sent to the administration representing thousands of alumni who graduated between 1966 and 2023 from all of the University's
schools, and identify across a variety of racial, ethnic and religious groups.
"I sign because my Jewish values of inquiry, empathy, and moral courage compel me to," said an alumna of CC '03 and CLS '10 who grew up in both New York and Jerusalem.

(Half of text can provide more on request)
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵37/n

Even though all of us living in the UK know that homelessness is terrible (and has grown exponentially since 2010), it is still shocking to see this graph.

(There are notes on methods: all countries included both rough sleeping and invisible homelessness).

oecd.org/social/homelessness-c

Experiencing homelessness
As per 10 000 people, 2023 or latest year (point-in-time data)
UK (England) *
France
Czechia
Germany
United States
New Zealand
Australia
Canada
Portugal
Denmark
Sweden
Spain
Mexico
Norway
Korea
Finand
30.7
28.4
25.9
19.2
13.5
12.4
10.5
10.3
6.3
5.5
5.4
3.6
2.6
1.6
1.6
42.6
10
20
Note: People experiencing homelessness (PIT data) who are living rough or staying in emergency
accommodation (ETHOS Light 1, 2, 3), as reported by governments. *Data for the United Kingdom
(England) refer to the number of households experiencing homelessness per 10 000 households for
ETHOS Light 2 and 3; data also include people enumerated in the Rough Sleeping Snapshot (ETHOS 1).
Source: OECD Affordable Housing Database, HC3.1 People experiencing homelessness.
30
40
OECD
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