Podcasts about host ross ashcroft

Within the global economy, winners and losers can be split into two specific groups: the Have Nots and the Have Yachts. For the yachties… They get the wind of cheap money printing constantly filling their sails, which allows them to speculate, juice asset prices and end up with yet more yachts. However, the have-nots have to sit marooned and becalmed awaiting some imaginary trickle-down cash that never comes. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist Frank Shostak and investor and author Mitch Feierstein to discuss how Western leaders, policy makers and central bankers have managed to create such a divide…

In an information age in which most media brands deliberately nail their colours to the mast, one organisation – which that has just reached its 200-year anniversary – still can't explain what it really stands for. The Guardian is loved by some, hated by others, but when it comes to an editorial standpoint, its mercurial choices have left many flummoxed. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Des Freedman and Justin Schlosberg to discuss ‘Capitalism's Conscience: 200 Years of The Guardian'. Edited by Freedman and with a chapter by Schlosberg, the book takes an in-depth look at both the newspaper's journalism and its political values.

One of the biggest Covid-19 casualties on a global level has been education. But what many have missed during the pandemic is that the crisis in higher education is being ruthlessly exploited. Management teams and consultants think they can now –without all that pesky academic consultation– make mega bucks by cementing a fully neo-liberal educational regime. What could possibly go wrong? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Peter Fleming, author of 'Dark Academia: How Universities Die,' to discuss the future of higher education.

You would think that the sixth largest economy in the world would be able to organise itself to provide decent school meals for its children, but alas… the UK has faltered. It’s astonishing that the Manchester United number 10 has done more for hungry schoolchildren than the occupant of Number 10. The former knows all about childhood hunger; the latter thinks the so-called free market can deliver everything. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the founder of School Food Matters, Stephanie Slater, and Johnbosco Nwogbo from ‘We Own It’ to discuss whether we should be relying on the free market to solve childhood hunger.

There’s nothing like the idea of unionised workers to make the predatory capitalist convulse – for them, precarious employment is profitable. But what if this subjugation and short-termism had its time, particularly as younger generations of workers increasingly see the benefits of trade unions? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by labor law specialist Carolyn Jones and Carolyn Steinhoff of Amazon Labour Union to ask if the tide has turned on those companies who have long exploited workers to swell their bottom line.

It is claimed that the silver market is one of the most manipulated markets in the world. It is also claimed that there is a drastic shortfall between how much of the precious metal is above the ground versus how much has been sold in paper contracts. So, is this the year that sends the silver price to the Moon? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by silver guru David Morgan and Ivan Bayoukhi to find out if the so-called silver stackers are about to have their long-awaited moment in the Sun.

Less than 100 days into his presidency, Joe Biden is already angling for war with Russia… The excuse? Ukrainian sovereignty. But Russia has 200 years of experience when it comes to Western forces piling up troops against its borders – and it’s led to a series of devastating wars. And again today, we are seeing the highest number of NATO and US troops stationed close to the Russian border. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by analyst Alex Krainer and author Dmitry Orlov to discuss why the real reason behind this growing tension is something quite different.

Gentrification and spiraling property prices are forcing generations all over the world into debt and out of cities. We’re seeing housing – which should be a human right and a social good – being financialized into an asset class by the banks, then played with on stock markets. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, and award-winning filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, who together created the documentary ‘Push’, to understand both what is going on and what we can do about it.

The much-quoted linguist Noam Chomsky said, “We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.” Yet in the age of individualism, we have often confused good ideas with a search for a hero. This ego festival has created saviour complexes that have become so pernicious they have derailed the most well-intentioned plans. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist and author Jordan Flaherty and Degan Ali, the director of Adeso, to look beyond the saviour models that have been killing us for too long.

It was the American writer Gore Vidal who cynically quipped, “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” This perfectly sums up the US’ desire for global domination. But will the US Oligarchy remain unsatisfied with its success and continue to push for the failure of other countries? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist Ben Norton to explore whether there is any stopping the insatiable quest for US so-called superiority and exceptionalism.

Government temporary measures are rarely temporary. In a surveillance age, very few people know that travel passports were initially meant to be temporary but World War I brought in harsh restrictions on the freedom of movement. So what consequences will emerge from new immunity or vaccine passports? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Alexis Hancock and David Nolan to discuss if these ‘temporary’ downsides will become the norm as we gradually forget that freedom is a natural condition?

The trauma created by the pandemic has understandably meant we’re looking for rapid solutions to complex problems. Rich Western countries have bought up most of the supply of vaccines in a headlong rush to protect their own populations. But isn’t the key to universal public health access to medicine for all? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by public health activist Achal Prabhala and Andrea Taylor from the Global Health Innovation Center to ask if this blinkered approach will end up costing everyone much more.

The Biden administration has wasted no time in showing that it, too, is going to continue the great American tradition of the 'forever war'. So, will there be another unjustified precursor to the next US-led conflict? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Robert Fantina and Piers Robinson to ask if American citizens have grown suspicious of forever wars abroad – especially when there is so much economic demise and division at home?

All you ever hear business leaders calling for is certainty... the problem with this is that the only thing in life that’s certain is uncertainty. So how does philosophy allow us to navigate uncertain times? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by business philosopher and author Anders Indset to discuss.

For decades we have been brainwashed into believing that unlimited growth is good. Economic growth is apparently the holy grail, rooted in outdated measurements like GDP and arbitrary stock-market digits... But what if these assumptions are wrong and actually, for our well-being and the future of the planet, we have to redefine success and embrace degrowth? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economic anthropologist Jason Hickel and global justice activist Asad Rehman to unpick.

We all can see we live in a world of misallocated capital. But we also live in a society of misallocated labour. We disproportionately praise and pay those who work with their heads yet when it comes to people who work with their hearts or with their hands they end up with crumbs in comparison – so how did the cult of the knowledge worker become so pervasive? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist and author David Goodhart to discuss.

Stephen Vizinczey says all a great power has to do to destroy itself is persist in doing the impossible... Like bankruptcy, societies and complex systems collapse slowly then all at once. The cycles that civilisations go through are well documented and whilst in hindsight it’s glaringly obvious to understand what drove the breakdown, in real time we are often too close and too invested trying to be relevant, to recognise our own demise. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist Indi Samarajiva to discuss how this collapse has come about.

The Green New Deal is painted as an unaffordable far-left pipe dream. It has been politically maligned to preserve the status quo at a time when we know that establishment economists have got all climate breakdown projections completely wrong... So surely the question we should be asking is simple: how much is it going to cost us not to do this? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and economist Ann Pettifor to discuss.

It’s said in the Gospel of Matthew that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. But what happens when the rich men are the pastors? Today, the Prosperity Gospel has conflated Christianity with capitalism – the business model is to sell access, success and salvation… and if you don’t buy it, you get... well, hellish damnation. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist Mary Wrenn to discuss the Prosperity Gospel.

When economist Thomas Picketty released his book ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century,’ people clambered to get a copy. Filmmaker Justin Pemeberton has since made it into a documentary, in which he points to how rentier capitalism has disenfranchised the West. Host Ross Ashcroft caught up with the Kiwi director to understand what needs to change if we want 21st century capital to serve us, not enslave us.

US national security has turned into a racket. Enemies and bogeymen are invented with monotonous regularity to justify massive budgets and kickbacks to insiders. But with so much domestic US turmoil how long can this swindle go on? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by investigative historian and journalist Gareth Porter to discuss the state of national security and how the US’ track record on foreign policy has got us into this mess.

The governor of the bank of England is a public servant. He recently claimed that the UK almost went bankrupt at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. But how does a country that issues its own currency go bust? Or are we in danger of propping up sectors that in the medium term just don’t have a future? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economists and authors Josh Ryan-Collin and Laurie Macfarlane to discuss whether this crisis is an opportunity to re-shape our economy.

The statistics are shocking: 55,000 mothers are pushed out of their jobs every year for being pregnant or needing maternity leave. 77% are actively discriminated against and almost half of all working mothers say they earn less now than before they had kids. So how do we end maternity and pregnancy discrimination? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the founder of ‘Pregnant Then Screwed’, Joeli Brearley, to discuss how we can end the motherhood penalty.

Jane Elliot is best known as the teacher who, on April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, put her third-grade students through a bold exercise to teach them about racial prejudice. For almost 50 years, she has been challenging preconceived ideas about racism and asking why anyone would judge a fellow human being by the color of their skin. So why are we still here? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by American political activist Ajamu Baraka, and author and editor of the Black Agenda Report Margaret Kimberley, to discuss the ongoing racial tensions in America.

History doesn’t repeat itself – but it certainly rhymes. George Floyd is yet another name in a long, tragic list of unarmed black men killed by a police force plagued with endemic racism, a military mentality and zero accountability. To the rest of the world America today looks like a failed police state. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter to discuss police brutality and what can be done about it.

Royal Dutch Shell has two scenarios posited over the next 50 years. One is called Blueprint – based on global collaboration to tackle the big issues – and the other is called Scramble. Scramble is pretty much what it sounds like… it’s a mess. So, which path are we heading down? And is it set in stone? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. With his years in the army, working in government and now teaching, he offers an insight into the reordering of the geopolitical world, the death of the American empire, and what can be done to reimagine the West.

The team that brings you this program every week also produced Four Horsemen – a documentary that went in search of the real causes of the 2008 financial crash. The film pointed out that if fundamental economic issues weren’t addressed, another economic depression would be all but inevitable… So here we are. We have squandered time and money by kicking the can down the road and reflating the greatest asset bubble in human history. Host Ross Ashcroft has selected the most pertinent Four Horsemen clips as the global economy once again lurches from crisis into catastrophe.

On this show, we cover economics a lot, and one of the big challenges we continually grapple with is finding guests who are versed in economics but who hail from diverse backgrounds. So, as diversity across business, politics and academia is improving, why is diversity in the discipline of economics lagging so far behind? And as if its reputation couldn’t get any worse, why is that discipline still viewed as the preserve of the stale, pale and male? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the head of economics at the University of Bristol, Sarah Smith, and Ali Norrish, from the charity Economy, to discuss the state of diversity in economics and what can be done about it.

‘Profits vs people’ has always been the dichotomy at the heart of the pharmaceutical industry. After so much wrongdoing and greed, will big pharma use the coronavirus as an opportunity to redeem itself… or will it continue business as usual? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and investigative journalist Gerald Posner to discuss the response of the pharmaceutical industry to Covid-19.

During a seemingly innocent exchange between a talk show host and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, did we get an insight into the state of the American empire? All empires end with massive debt and inequality in an age of decadence. In the final throes of Rome, slaves were sent to the mountains to collect snow to make ice cream for the elites… whilst the people starved. Today, is the US empire repeating history? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Max Keiser, host of the Keiser Report, to discuss reshaping the global economy and the future of America.

The US Declaration of Independence famously cites that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are unalienable rights. But is the pursuit of happiness even possible or does this goal actually make life increasingly miserable and liberty more elusive? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the sociologist and author, Dr Ashley Frawley, and researcher Dr Mark Horowitz to discuss the incessant striving for happiness instead of meaning.

The line that we hear constantly throughout this pandemic is how it has exposed our systemic frailties and weaknesses. But would this have been the case if we’d prevented the financial sector from hollowing out the real economy and democracy itself? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the author of ‘The Ponzi Factor’, Tan Liu, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting Prem Sikka to discuss how we can use this crisis to reimagine society and prevent the biggest wealth grab in modern times.

Self-isolation, quarantine and the closure of the schools has meant a headlong rush into home schooling. But if this corona crisis is going to fundamentally reshape economies and how we live, what – and how – should we be teaching our children so they’re equipped for a very different world? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and educator Graham Brown-Martin to discuss the new rules, pitfalls and positives of home learning.

During quarantine, what better to do than check in with two of America’s great economists? We wanted to know where next for capitalist America as this deadly virus grips an already frail economy. Has the policy response been socialism for the rich, predatory capitalism for the rest of us? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Professor Richard D. Wolff and Professor Michael Hudson to discuss why the coronavirus has closed capitalism.

The horrific events have been extensively documented. But not until now has the corporate sponsorship of the holocaust ever been methodically laid out. Rarely do we hear that it was corporate interests, coupled with desk bound administrators, that drove one of the most abhorrent chapters in human history. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Dan Gretton, author of ‘I You We Them: Journeys Beyond Evil,’ to discuss the psychology behind the ‘desk killer’ in history and today.

Our version of capitalism is something the narcissistic writer Ayn Rand would have adored, but in a headlong rush to hyper-individualism, have we chosen freedom of the individual over the survival of our species… Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist and author, Professor Steve Keen to discuss why coronavirus has closed capitalism.

Security Services Cinema – Lights, Camera, Redaction. It was the screenwriter Blake Snyder who said that screenplays are Swiss clocks of emotion. But what effect on society do screenwriters have if their work is being influenced by institutions that push a government narrative? Could that Swiss clock of emotion be used nefariously to further geopolitical agendas – or is that just conspiracy theory from cloud cuckoo land? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author of ‘Reel Power, Hollywood cinema and American supremacy’, Dr. Matthew Alford and a few interview questions with Jay Dyer toward the end.