Monopoly: who has not relished the receipt of rent when a fellow player’s token lands on your high-priced property? But what is the nature of this thing ‘rent’ and what has it to do with a rentier economy, a charge levelled at the UK? You are invited to join us on a journey that will take us from a natural resource, something originally freely available, and transformed into an ‘asset’ by a system of law through to an economic system that facilitates the creation and extraction of wealth.
Following the Money: The material for this course will be based on a recent book by Paul Johnson of the independently funded and widely-respected organisation The Institute of Fiscal Studies. In the book he provides ‘an explanation of where the money collected by the UK government comes from, where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change.’ His account provides the context behind many of today's economic headlines.
Grass Roots and Housing: The topics covered reflect the group's interests and can be completed in a session or by sustained study over a longer period. We looked at Fred Harrison's body of work and predictions, and their reviews in current financial journals, over several sessions, and our work on the housing crisis has been given attention for part of most weeks over the last couple of terms, the latter focussing on the UK, Ireland and Western Australia. Another topic on which we spent some weeks - "Grass Roots Initiatives" - was featured in a recent talk by Fred Harrison as the only way that may rescue us from a crash in 2026. New members will be very welcome to join us and help choose the coming term’s topics.
What is Truth?: There has been a lot of talk about Fake News and the ability of advertisers and politicians to manipulate the truth to their advantage. This is a serious problem because our ordinary relationships rely heavily on trust. For example, we have to be able to take it for granted that the grocer, the doctor or the nurse in front of us is telling the truth.
With news being received from new sources, along with many stories that could be either conspiracy theories or the untruths of vested interests, we are faced with a question of supreme importance: How are we to tell the truth from the untruth?