The government claims that massive increases in student fees are needed to help eliminate the budget deficit this Parliament. Yet because of the student loans system, the effect on the deficit will... More > be minimal. In this provocative paper, Molly Scott Cato argues that there are wider motives behind the increasing marketisation of the higher education system, and drawing on experience in a number of other countries, argues that there are alternatives which would do much less damage to the basic ideals of higher education.< Less
All across the world local communities are starting their own currencies to counter the problems caused by the financial crisis and the misallocation of money towards the gambling circuits of the... More > casino economy and away from local economies. Molly Scott Cato frames the post-2008 financial crisis in terms of the failure of effective demand. Quantitative Easing has not only increased inequality, as indicated recently by the Bank of England, but has also created only ineffective demand. The report includes an authoritative account of the different types of local money that are in circulation across the world from Germany's hugely successful Chiemgauer to the currency issued by Banco Palmas in Brazil and Rotterdam's Nu-Spaarpas.< Less
