
Articles

The point of no return
The disintegration of growth is irreversible. Roxana Bobulescu explains. I was born in Romania in 1972 when the country was a socialist republic. It was the year of the Meadows

Dependency issues
Coming out of the pandemic crisis will be a difficult political and economic balancing act for the Eurozone. And Germany stands to topple, says Dirk Ehnts. The Eurozone is a

The human touch
Paul Frijters shares a dream. The world is getting hotter and wetter due to humanity increasing its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions over the past 200 years. Even if

The only way out
Post-war reconstruction involved taxing the richest – it could help with building a low-carbon economy according to Dario Kenner. Amid the worst public health crisis in a generation, an economic disaster has

An inconveniently complex truth
Roland Kupers tells how complexity characterises climate policy questions. And how it also provides answers. The world’s governments in 2015 made a radical shift in the principles that governed their

The trillion tree delusion
Going carbon neutral by planting a trillion trees will make our climate problem worse says Kathleen McAfee. Will planting trees save the planet from global warming? Billionaires attending the 2020

Follow the money
Self-styled comedian and economist, Susie Steed, tells how her guided walk around the City turned into a tour of the British Empire. I never set out to run a tour

Fake news (the emperor’s old clothes)
Tom London tells how self-aggrandisement, warmongering and bribing the population was a feature of national leadership millennia before any president. Like the Fascist dictator Mussolini, evoking the Roman Empire, and

Shorn of the debt
Peter Manley describes the horrors of walking dead companies and the dangers in killing them off. The Coronavirus pandemic has put much of the world’s economy on financial life support,

Down to size
Why exactly is the boss paid so much? Blair Fix says it’s all a question of size. As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, we’re seeing a common trend. Companies are firing

If nothing changes it all stays the same
Changing minds changes very little. Overhauling the way we live is more like it. David Fell suggests that, for most of us, like-minded people will lead the way to Net

The comeback kid
Stefan Kesting and André Petersen Ystehede introduce a powerful intellectual force in economics who started early and faced his own firepower. Albert O. Hirschman is a role model as a
Interviews

Chinese walls are invisible
German economist and erstwhile policy adviser, Wolfram Elsner, has just published a book, The Chinese Century after researching and teaching in China for almost a decade. When he started out, he

Why not?
Steve Keen is currently viewing the world from Thailand, which is remarkably now almost virus free. He arrived there with his Thai partner on one of the last flights in
India: an even bigger picture
Smita Srinivas is an Indian pluralist economist whose work includes examining the political economy of the health industry. India has not had good press over its response to the pandemic,

Back to Africa
Three months ago The Mint discussed with US-based, Kenyan economist, Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji, the outlook for Africa in the mounting pandemic. At that time, things did not look good in
Columns

In black and white
I benefit from multiple privileges. White? Tick. Male? Tick. Posh? Tick and so on. In fact the world is largely designed by people like me for people like me. My

Pot, porn and praise the Lord
People find new outlets when lockdown comes. I want to make clear that we do not live in a care home, thank God. It is a retirement apartment complex. People

Banking off road
Don’t consult the map while making a handbrake turn. What an unreality of a year so far. Society has done a handbrake turn and we are hurtling in an unmapped

Covid confusion: going viral
Frances Coppola shows where the truth lies. If there is one industry that has flourished under coronavirus, it is the statistics industry. Never have so many statistics been produced, charted,

The class divide
Nigella Vigoroso-Heck asks: if Eton can do it why can’t my local comp? It has been 14 weeks since we closed the school gates. In that time I have: conducted

The Mint is listening to… Nikita Asnani 19, Second year Economics
Day one, year one: I was a girl with black glasses and blue jeans, sitting in the second row, straining my neck to get a good view of the slides

Mystically speaking
John Perkins was a self-confessed economic hit man. He had his damascene conversion in the rainforests of the Amazon in conversation with shamans. As a result he has written extensively
Book Reviews

A cross-field punt
A novelist and a mathematician have combined forces to produce a fictional account of the Lehman Brothers’ crash that injects life into soulless corners of financial teaching reading lists. Review

Interview: Wolfram Elsner – Chinese walls are invisible – Transcript
The Mint: Good evening, Wolfram, and thank you very much for joining us and speaking to The Mint this evening. Wolfram Elsner: Good evening, Henry. The Mint: I’d love to

Interview: Steve Keen – Why not? – Transcript
The Mint: Hi, Steve. Great to see you again. And thanks for giving us your time. I wanted to start first with you describing your experience in the moment of
Interview: Smita Srinivas – India: an even bigger picture – transcript
The Mint: Good day, Smita and thank you very much for making some time to talk to the Mint. Smita: I’m delighted to be here. The Mint: I would like
Interview: John Perkins – Mystically Speaking – Transcript
The Mint: Good morning John. It’s great you’ve made some time to talk to us. I’m very grateful. Thanks. John Perkins: Well, it’s great to be with you, Henry. Thanks
Interview Mwangi wa Githinji – Back to Africa – Transcript
The Mint: Good evening Mwangi, and thank you very much for joining us again, three months later, to look at where things have got to in Africa with the pandemic,