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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

16 March at 9:06 | Open on mastodon.green
28 comments
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).

16 March at 9:15 | Open on mastodon.green
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
18 March at 16:51 | Open on mastodon.green
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

18 March at 16:58 | Open on mastodon.green
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

18 March at 17:11 | Open on mastodon.green
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
27 March at 5:32 | Open on mastodon.green
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”

27 March at 5:43 | Open on mastodon.green
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

3 April at 12:44 | Open on mastodon.green
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/

3 April at 12:50 | Open on mastodon.green
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

11 April at 6:24 | Open on mastodon.green
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

11 April at 6:33 | Open on mastodon.green
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann

#FollowTheMoney 🧵 20/n

Now really is the time of monsters. #Gramsci

Photo of Gramsci. Old studio portrait photograph, from late 1910s or early 19202, faded edges, young man - a very clever young man! - with thick bushy dark hair and small glasses.
11 April at 6:49 | Open on mastodon.green
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

11 April at 6:57 | Open on mastodon.green
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
11 April at 7:05 | Open on mastodon.green
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

11 April at 7:29 | Open on mastodon.green
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
11 April at 7:39 | Open on mastodon.green
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

13 April at 10:39 | Open on mastodon.green
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

18 April at 8:53 | Open on mastodon.green
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
18 April at 9:03 | Open on mastodon.green
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.”

18 April at 9:08 | Open on mastodon.green
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.”

30 April at 9:23 | Open on mastodon.green
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.
4 May at 6:31 | Open on mastodon.green
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

4 May at 6:38 | Open on mastodon.green
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.
5 May at 6:59 | Open on mastodon.green
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
9 May at 5:56 | Open on mastodon.green
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.
9 May at 6:06 | Open on mastodon.green
Pauline von Hellermann replied to Pauline von Hellermann
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)
9 May at 17:23 | Open on mastodon.green
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
15 May at 11:22 | Open on mastodon.green
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