Ann is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation (nef) and Director of Advocacy International Ltd.
Ann Pettifor’s most recent publication: "The economic consequences of Mr. Osborne" was co-authored with Professor Victoria Chick of University College London and published on the blog www.debtonation.org . This was followed up with an opinion piece on Bloomberg: "UK Bust Needs Big Spender".
Ann’s special interests include a) the architecture of the international financial system and its impact on sovereign debt and domestic monetary and fiscal policy and b) the challenges posed to economic policy by the twin threats of peak oil and climate change.
Ann’s overriding concern is with monetary policy, and in particular, the rate of interest. Unlike most orthodox economists she regards the high rates of interest charged to borrowers as causal to the ongoing financial crisis. As a Keynesian, she argues strongly for ‘tight but cheap money’.
Ann is a fellow of the new economics foundation, (nef) London where she dedicated three years to studying the post-Bretton Woods financial architecture. This led to the publication of the Real World Economic Outlook (2003). Then, in 2006, her book The Coming First World Debt Crisis (Palgrave) warned that rich countries were heading for a debt crisis that would overshadow anything seen in the developing world. Both were ridiculed. She also co-authored nef’s the Green New Deal, published in July, 2008 and updated as The Cuts Won’t Work in December, 2009.
Before that Ann led a global advocacy effort aimed at the Paris Club, the World Bank and IMF to have the unpayable debts of the poorest countries written off. As a result, and with the support of leaders ranging from PM Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to Presidents Clinton and George Bush – more than $100 billion of debt was acknowledged as unpayable, and written off for 35 of the lowest income countries.
This experience of dealing with official creditors immersed her in the issues of sovereign debt. She regularly attends World Bank and IMF meetings, and, working with organisations in Thailand and Indonesia had first-hand experience of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Later she worked in Buenos Aires with economists and parliamentarians during Argentina’s sovereign debt crisis of 2001. In 2004-5 she advised the Government of Nigeria on its negotiations with European and Japanese creditors in advance of its critical 2005 Paris Club meeting at which $18 billion of debt was written off by OECD creditors.
Ann blogs at www.debtonation.org and also the Huffington Post.
