If government measured what people actually want (wellbeing, not GDP growth), policy would look very different. And if AI takes away work people find meaningful, that's not "efficiency", that's value destroyed. youtu.be/XMszUmhXGpQ

FINAL CALL Join me this Saturday at Henry George Foundation, London (or online) for "The Land Trap and Growth of Paradigm" - a brilliant lineup of speakers. Can't wait to share ideas with some top thinkers. Hope to see you there! henrygeorgefoundation.org/events/henry...

Why "Bonkers Economics"? Potholes that never get fixed. Hospital waiting lists. Rents eating half your income. Sewage in the rivers. 80,000 people waiting for a day in court. I try to explain what's happening with a series of images and video. www.youtube.com/@BonkersEcon...

Bonkers Economics

The UK is so rich on paper, and yet unable to meet so many of our basic needs. Once the ‘workshop of the world’, our economy has shifted from productive to extractive: instead of creating real…

youtube.com

New 4-part series, "Fixing Our Economy" is live. Before we can fix the economy, we need to answer a question almost nobody asks: what do we actually want it to do? First episode is up 👇 youtu.be/XMszUmhXGpQ

What Do We Actually Want the Economy to Do? | Fixing Our Economy Part 1

We’re told the economy is growing, so why does life keep getting harder? In this episode of Fixing Our Economy, we rethink economics from the ground up. Instead of focusing on GDP, markets, and…

youtu.be

Henry George explored who actually controls the production of wealth, and who benefits from it. Land is unlike anything else we call 'wealth'. That's where my HGF Open Day talk goes. 12 Sept, London. henrygeorgefoundation.org/events/henry...

Measure prosperity in money and you can convince yourself a country's getting richer. Measure it in actual wealth and the picture looks very different. More at HGF's Open Day, 12 Sept. youtu.be/B1zXYWLh5YU

Wealth = the things that actually meet human needs (food, housing, healthcare, education) and our capacity to keep producing them. Not the price tag. It's part of what I'll be talking about at HGF's Open Day in London on Sat 12th Sept.

If every bank balance in the country doubled overnight, would the country be richer? No - not unless more actually got produced. Money ≠ wealth. Writing about this ahead of my HGF Open Day talk on 12 Sept. I'll be explaining this new image this week.

Bonkers Economics just hit 20K on YouTube. Wealth isn't just money - it's whatever sustains and improves people's lives. I use striking visuals to explore why the UK's economy so often fails the majority it serves. Watch here: www.youtube.com/@BonkersEcon... #Economics #UKEconomy

Ahead of my talk at HGF's Open Day in London (Sat 12 Sept), I wrote a short piece on a question worth asking properly: what actually IS wealth and why do we keep confusing it with money? Starting point for what I'll be talking about on the day. thehenrygeorgefoundation.substack.com/p/what-is-we...

What is Wealth? (and Other Important Questions)

Martin Whitlock previews his forthcoming talk at the HGF Open Day in September

thehenrygeorgefoundation.substack.com

The economy is supposed to improve people's lives. If more people are anxious, exhausted and struggling to make ends meet... perhaps it's worth asking whether we've designed the system well. That's why it's called Bonkers Economics. #BonkersEconomics

Every Bonkers Economics image starts with data. But instead of another chart, it becomes colour, pattern and form. The aim isn't to prove a point. It's to spark curiosity. #ArtAndEconomics #BonkersEconomics

What is wealth? Not just money. Not just GDP. What if wealth is simply the things that sustain and improve our lives? That's the question behind Bonkers Economics. What would be on your list? #BonkersEconomics #WhatIsWealth

I'm delighted to be speaking at the Henry George Foundation Open Day on 12 Sept. My session asks: what actually IS wealth, and how is it different from money? Turns out the growth paradigm has been quietly confusing the two for centuries. £12 in person / £6 online schoolofphilosopy.org

I'll be posting a new "Bonkers Economy" visual every two weeks. If you find them useful, please share them with your network. A breakdown of each visual can be found on my website:

Bonkers Economics - Art that makes sense of a crazy world

Bonkers Economics is an art and economics project inspired by decades of failure of economic policy, in the UK and elsewhere.

bonkerseconomics.net

Read these two stories from today's @theguardian.com side by side and weep for the hypocrisy of the Home Office trying to chuck out an Italian person while the Foreign Office is complaining about the Swedish government chucking out a British person... When will we ever learn?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026... Or, to put it another way, devolution of power to local authorities is a good thing unless we don't agree with you! (I'm not saying I agree either, but that's not the point)

‘It is British life’: No 10 vows to stop councils trying to limit standing in pubs

Westminster council has recommended banning ‘vertical drinking’ or ordering at the bar in new draft licensing policy

theguardian.com

Why has this happened? "The slippery slope", UK economic activity 1950 vs 2015. 1950: mostly productive work (factories, agriculture). 2015: mostly property + financial market activity. The economy shifted from paying people to rewarding owners. youtu.be/BFzsl4Rk5cI?...

The £24 billion question — bonkerseconomics.net/the-24-billi... With the banks reporting massive profits, here's my image to remind us of the good things that a government could do with some of that money. And still leave the banks with a healthy profit too...

Bonkers Economics: The £24 Billion Question

The profits of the big UK banks could fund many of the government's key social priorities, and still leave plenty left over for shareholders.

bonkerseconomics.net

"National wealth" ≠ your wealth. It's concentrated in a small group of already-wealthy households. Even homeowners: a lot of your house price gain effectively goes to your mortgage lender, in interest. Wages belong to everyone. They're the ones that stalled. Watch here: youtu.be/BFzsl4Rk5cI?...

The image, explained: each shape = 20 years of UK economic history. 1966–86: wages kept pace with wealth. 1986–2006: wealth boomed, wages kept up-ish. 2006–26: wealth boomed again, wages barely moved. That's the shrinking gap you saw.

New image for Bonkers Economics. Three shapes, left to right - one fits, one's a squeeze, one doesn't fit at all. No numbers yet. Just look at it. I'll explain what it's actually measuring over the next few days.

"National wealth" ≠ your wealth. It's concentrated in a small group of already-wealthy households. Even homeowners: a lot of your house price gain effectively goes to your mortgage lender, in interest. Wages are the ones that stalled. Full video: youtu.be/BFzsl4Rk5cI?...

12 of 12. Done. Twelve weeks. Twelve images. One argument, built from the first episode to this one. Thank you to everyone who watched, shared, argued, and kept coming back. The series existed because you engaged with it. A new series is coming. The conversation continues.

The economy is not broken by accident. It has been built, piece by piece, decision by decision, over decades to do exactly what it does. Move money toward the already wealthy. Reward extraction over production. Make the accumulation of money the measure of success, and call it growth.

The series is finished. 12 images. 12 reasons. One argument. The economy isn't broken by accident. It's been structured, through decades of policy decisions, to reward the movement of money over the creation of wealth. That can be changed. Policy choices can be different choices.

Bonkers Economics | Home

Discover why the UK economy is failing. Explore powerful images and stories revealing how wealth accumulation at the top harms society.

bonkerseconomics.net

There's something in the CEO pay image that goes beyond the numbers. 40 years ago, there was a shared sense of purpose in a lot of economic activity. People in a car factory knew they were making cars. Everyone (management, workers, unions) was oriented toward the same thing.

The series is complete. Here is the argument it made, in 12 steps. 1. The economy has a productive half and an extractive half and the extractive half has grown to dominate. 2. That shift happened over 70 years, accelerating sharply in the 1980s.

FINAL VIDEO: 12 images. 12 reasons. This is the last one. The twelfth image is about CEO pay. In three days in January, top UK bosses earn what the average worker earns in a year. Their pay has gone from 11 times the average to 120 times — in a generation.

UK CEOs earn a year’s pay in 3 days! Here’s why it’s wrecking the economy. | Bonkers Economics Ep.12

Top UK bosses now earn in just three days what the average worker earns in an entire year. By 5 January, that gap becomes impossible to ignore. But this isn’t really about fairness, it’s about what…

youtu.be