Culture, Power, Politics » Podcast PFI: The Financialisation of Everything
Jul 11, 2018
Grace Blakely, a researcher on finance and public policy, delves into the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and its detrimental impact on the UK public sector. She examines the PFI's intricate workings, highlighting its promotion as a solution that ultimately prioritized corporate profits over public welfare. Blakely highlights the catastrophic collapse of Carillion as a case study of financialised failure, urging a reevaluation of public ownership models. The discussion sheds light on the cultural implications of financialisation and the urgent need for systemic change in public spending.
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Outsourcers Profit From Being Middlemen
- Outsourcing giants profit by mastering bidding and taking margins while subcontracting delivery to smaller firms.
- They function as intermediaries that extract public money without producing value.
Financialisation Reshapes The Entire Economy
- Financialisation means finance plays a growing role across banks, firms, households and governments.
- This creates larger, more complex, interconnected institutions and instruments that reshape the whole economy.
Carillion As A Ponzi-Like Example
- Carillion epitomised a financialised firm that intermediated contracts without real assets or long-term investment.
- It used new contracts and dividends to mask failures, creating a Ponzi-like collapse in 2018.
