The topic of finance is a vast and murky field. But increasingly, environmental and social civil society actors find themselves grasping with these complex issues – whether it is about demanding more money for the transition, challenging budgetary restrictions or redirecting funds from harmful activities. 

For this trilogy of webinars, we are pleased to be joined by experts in the fields of industrial policy, monetary-fiscal coordination and post-growth macroeconomic financial regimes. Each session will delve into a specific angle of the finance question and aim to raise awareness and critical thinking on issues that are central to the transformations of our economies and the safeguard of our planet. 

Debunking Derisking with Prof. Daniela Gabor 

Wednesday 30th April 10-10.45 CEST 

The new EU Clean Industrial Deal is banking on private finance mechanisms to fund essential services and industrial transitions such as via the Capital Markets Union. Meanwhile EU public funds via State aid are being channelled to boost companies’ corporate profits. 

What are the issues with the private/public finance debate, what is derisking and what alternatives are there for us to advocate for?

A 20min Q&A will follow up Daniela’s presentation 

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Daniela Gabor is professor of economics at SOAS University London where she teaches International Finance, Macroeconomic and Global Economic Policy Analysis. Daniela’s research focuses on central banks, shadow money, just transitions and green industrial policies through a critical macrofinance lens. Daniela has also served as an expert advisor to the European Parliament, the G20 under the Brazilian Presidency, the United Nations’ 4th Financing for Development Agenda, civil society organisations, and central banks. 

The transformative power of credit guidance with Charles Stevenson

Tuesday 20 May 10:00 – 11:00 CEST

The European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy is currently unfit for purpose as it doesn’t fulfil its primary mandate of ensuring price stability, let alone support general economic policies and objectives of the EU. To do so, central banks must shift away from interest rate management and open market operations as the primary levers of monetary policy and towards a renewed role for direct credit regulations

What is credit guidance? How has it been used in the past to both control aggregate demand and steer capital from some sectors towards others? And what would this imply for the social-ecological transition?

The presentations will delve into these issues and be followed up by a 20-minute Q&A.

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Charles Stevenson is a doctoral activist-scholar based at ICTA-UAB University in Barcelona as part of the REAL research project. His work focusses on formalising the policies that constitute the core proposals for a European social-ecological transformation and to outline how European institutions would need to change to implement these policies.

A macro-financial regime for democratically planned degrowth with Dr. Elena Hofferberth 

Wednesday 11th June 10-11h CEST 

Contemporary macro-financial regimes fail to live up to the social and ecological transformations of our economies. Neither is enough funding made available for essential renewable infrastructure and social services nor is private finance sufficiently constrained to phase-out existing and prevent further fossil and other socially and environmentally degrading industries.

What are the shortcomings of existing macro-financial regimes to support a fully-fledged social-ecological transformation and what could a post-growth macro-financial regime look like? Elena will present a framework to grasp these challenges and discuss levers in distinct policy areas, including monetary reform, monetary-fiscal coordination and democratic planning. Her talk will be followed by a 20min Q&A.

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Elena Hofferberth is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne. In her research, she explores macroeconomic and political-economy challenges and possibilities in a post-growth economy. Elena is the principal researcher of the CliMacro project and a friend of the REAL project, where she works on post-growth policies, including monetary reform, monetary-fiscal coordination, and new modes of democratic ecological coordination of the macroeconomy. Elena holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Leeds.