Woke Capitalism Just COLLAPSED. Here’s Why. | Aaron Bastani Meets Brett Christophers

[@abelmolina3835]

At the end of the day it's quite simple: Billionaires prefer fascism to raising the wages of normal people.

[@roscojenkins7451]

Oligarchy is a stones throw from fascism... Literally one step removed

[@MrDodgedollar]

1) Normal people can become Billionaires 2) Their political attitudes vary like the rest of the population. Grow up will you

[@roscojenkins7451]

@MrDodgedollar your 1) is completely wrong. Anybody can become a millionaire with hard work, determination, and mostly luck. Hard work and determination won't make you a millionaire without luck as the final key... To become a billionaire you MUST exploit the poor in one way or another. That is an absolute fact. Can you tell me of a billionaire today that was born into abject poverty? No you can't because the vast majority in that club were born into it received substantial handouts from their parents or were multimillionaires long enough to get the right connections to figure out how to exploit the poor. An Example is Jay Z and Beyonce... Both became millionaires through hard work, determination and mostly luck. Don't believe me? Ask how the other ladies in destiny's child are doing. Ask how other NY rappers are doing... They used their millions to create clothing brands which exploited poor people in other countries using literal sweat shops. Even Jeff Bezos was given millions to start his small business Amazon. He didn't just get a bank loan. He was gifted it from his parents. And he became a billionaire by exploiting the poor.

[@JimboJimbo-i4i]

@@roscojenkins7451ironically monopolies and Oligarchs are the businesses reducing the prices, it’s the smaller businesses that aren’t as efficient which end up hiking prices to stay alive

[@anderson.soredna]

Exactly!

[@andybrice2711]

I think a large part of these investors ratcheting up in the past few years was the pandemic. They were like _"Let's go, boys! It's the Disaster Capitalism opportunity of our lifetimes."_

[@PeppermintPatties]

💯

[@Perspectiveon]

Absolutely. BlackRock like all major US asset management firms are vultures whose sole interest is extraction of Wealth for US elites. Disaster Capitalists 101. Stay away from them if you possibly can.

[@Perspectiveon]

Absolutely. BlackRock like all major US asset management firms are vultures whose sole interest is extraction of Wealth for US elites. Disaster Capitalists 101. Stay away from them if you possibly can.

[@Perspectiveon]

Absolutely. BlackRock like all major US asset management firms are vultures whose sole interest is extraction of Wealth benefitting the selected few. Disaster Capitalists 101. Stay away from them if you possibly can.

[@jakcasey2048]

I think your take sort of proves what they talk about with regards to the left only being able to form critiques from the perspective of content creators / journalists / humanities. Your argument hinges on a psychologisation of the motivations of "investors" (basically a soft ad hominem), rather than any critical understanding based on the mechanisms of capitalism - because the experience isn't there. It's sort of an emergency for the left in my opinion.

[@nathanaelsmith3553]

When you hear people talk about delivering abstract concepts like 'growth' ask: for whom ?

[@nazirvania9365]

Shareholders!!

[@sichambers9011]

I mean this is the real point. Something that is completely obscured, wilfully by the media - the interests of capital and of labour are in conflict.

[@Hiphopoptimus-GG]

Yep, the US has growth and the average person there thinks the economy is bad, so its clearly not the lack of growth thats the problem its the ecdonomy of the average workers shrinking year on year

[@hyhhy]

Didn't Lenin say that already?

[@nathanaelsmith3553]

@@hyhhy not as well as I did

[@Benjamin.Jamin.]

ESG was the "deal" that capital made after the 08 crisis. The whole identity thing was to divert from class politics. Now they don't even need to offer that.

[@andybrice2711]

I’ve heard accounts that Occupy Wall Street started out with some strong economic ideas. And then just got invaded by New Left identity politics and fizzled out.

[@johnmoorefilm]

🎯

[@jackjordan5833]

Truth nuke

[@3v0lve_Music]

Nailed it!

[@matheus.bueno47]

When occupy Wall Street happened, they became desperate. Now with what happened with the Healthcare CEO and the identity politics having a falling out, they will try to find the next thing.

[@johnmoorefilm]

❤Big-up to Brent Christophers. He has a calm , fearless intelligence and he’s determined to lucidly explain how we are fucked!

[@JSmith19858]

Norway's rising living standards and EVs aren't being paid for directly by oil and gas money. It's being paid for by the proceeds of the investments they made with their oil and gas money decades ago. Had Thatcher not given it away and instead made long term investment they same way Norway did, we would be £9k-10k a year better off each.

[@intelligenceofacertainkind]

Norway is a tiny country. Its entire population is smaller than that of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. I agree with what you are saying but just that Norway is a very different country than the UK.

[@JSmith19858]

​@@intelligenceofacertainkind making long term investments has nothing to do with the size of the country. Had our oil and gas money been invested in the same way, for the benefit of all of us, we would be that much better off. It has nothing to do with the size of the country

[@AndrewWoods-sm9vx]

@@JSmith19858 nobody feels better off in the uk simply because of population growth - its plain and simple - the average immigrant to this country is a net taker, so the rest of the population has to make good.

[@gregoryjames165]

Yes, a pitiful waste. However, one needs to consider Norway's oil fields were larger than Britain's, with only a fifteen of the population of Britain benefitting from it.

[@JSmith19858]

@AndrewWoods-sm9vx what has that got to do with investing oil and gas money 40 years ago?

[@fashionlab7]

Unwoke capitalism collapsed too! We use the same financial system and light touch government focused on everything except the basics.

[@santerisatama5409]

Unwoke classic investment capitalism is alive in China, Russia etc. BRICS and associates.

[@santerisatama5409]

Neoliberalism is not really capitalism in the classical sense, but financial feodalism rentier system.

[@The.world.has.gone.crazy...]

​@santerisatama5409 bravo! At least one person here gets it.

[@andresgarciacastro1783]

@@The.world.has.gone.crazy... Neofeudalism is the unvoidable result of capitalism. As long as returns R are bigger than growth G. It is mathematically inevitable that the rich will eventually own everything. R>G

[@himpim642]

@@santerisatama5409 neboliberlsim is return to clasic carpialtism,unstrestained domination pf [riovate sector in economy specilised for locasl cirumcstances depednign on state.

[@Motbilder]

Labour isn't center left. It's not even centrist. It's what used to be called moderate rightwing. So why would Labour reason differently than any other rightwing party when it comes to business?

[@lynth]

Note that the biggest enemies aren't capitalists but "sOcIaLiStS" punching left and opposing Marxist-Leninist revolution. They are the ones preventing a revolutionary class consciousness to develop. They are the ones strengthening the rise of fascism without any opposition developing alongside it. The greatest betrayal to the working class was always the complicity of self-proclaimed "leftists" in counterrevolution. Chris Owens, Novara Media, etc. are part of the anti-socialist vanguard and people working with them or supporting them need to get that through their head. Their content in opposition to the reaction is good and valuable, but their anti-socialist attitude is not. Social democracy is a traitorous movement serving capital. It always did throughout all of history and its rhetoric is deceptive.

[@PaulZeeX]

I think I agree, although many modern "centrist" parties in 'the West' appear to be using a mix of conservative and moderate right-wing language and principles. I think it's difficult to tell if the result is an unintended byproduct due to lack of knowledge and skill, or a carefully honed result constructed as intended. Are those that claim to be modern centrists misappropriating language and form with focused intent, lacking in deep understanding and care, or something else?

[@kennethmarshall306]

@@Motbilder They are following the same economic ideology as the Conservatives

[@Ahobakayaro]

​@@PaulZeeXなにゆっとんねん🥱

[@si-hv3nu]

@@kennethmarshall306yes and the conservatives followed Blair and brown

[@TheSpoovy]

Is there anything left in Britain to sell? Have we sold the air yet? Maybe "investors" can buy it for a few mil, that should stave off the baliffs for another day. What could go wrong?

[@oldmcdonald6319]

It will be the farmland and likely houses next

[@andresgarciacastro1783]

Farmland, people's houses, NHS, social security, water suply, schools...

[@DeanJuvenal]

Precipitation over England has been privatized and stolen from Scotland and Wales

[@vylbird8014]

We still have public hospitals to sell off.

[@3v0lve_Music]

It's bigger than Blackrock. If you look at the top five shareholder list of any market leader in any industry, you'll invariably find Blackrock, State Street and Vanguard within the top five. When you add up their combined shares they'll also either hold the majority of shares or they'll be second only to the company founders. They move in unison as a defacto monopoly, all using Blackrock's Aladdin AI trading system.. and they are consolidating every facet of human existence, from mining and raw materials to tech to weapons to nuclear defence to pretty much anything else you can think of.

[@harticus300]

The natural conclusion of capitalism 🤷‍♂️ I really don't know what else people expected.

[@RasalilaRose]

don’t forget about Blackstone.

[@RasalilaRose]

water

[@OneDullMan]

At times, even bigger than the assets and the industries owned, is how much of the government debt is owned by such entities. I believe that a lot of debt is owned by these private entities and know they can wag the government in whichever direction they want.

[@simiflorincira4059]

That's not how this work :))) vanguard and blackrock have ETFs like S and P and hold the shares on behalf of every investor. For example I save my money and put it in an S n P for a safe return on investment under VUUA( S n P ticker), it will appear as if vanguard owns more shares of each company.

[@Jamaal67i]

Some economists have projected that both the U.S. and parts of Europe could slip into a recession for a portion of 2025. A global recession, defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income, is more rare because China and emerging markets often grow faster than more developed economies. Essentially the world economy is considered to be in recession if economic growth falls behind population growth.

[@Peterl4290]

My main concern now is how can we generate more revenue during quantitative times? I can't afford to see my savings crumble to dust.

[@jerrycampbell-ut9yf]

It's a delicate season now, so you can do little or nothing on your own. Hence I’ll suggest you get yourself a financial expert that can provide you with valuable financial information and assistance

[@Aarrenrhonda3]

Very true! I've been able to scale from $50K to $189k in this red season because my Financial Advisor figured out Defensive strategies which help portfolios be less vulnerable to market downturns

[@sabastinenoah]

How can I reach this adviser of yours? because I'm seeking for a more effective investment approach on my savings?

[@Aarrenrhonda3]

Her name is Annette Christine Conte can't divulge much. Most likely, the internet should have her basic info, you can research if you like

[@odetocycling]

Always an excellent guest. Scary just how much of the UK's assets are being spaffed by these companies and our incompetatnt governments

[@kieranbrady1240]

This will not do, see to it that that which will not do won't do and will never!

[@scooble]

Token gestures often do more harm than good as they often delegitimise the very cause that they're supposedly advocating for. See pinkwashing and greeneashing

[@ksw8514]

Or pandering to right-wing "populists" by adopting their framing.

[@3v0lve_Music]

There's also the huge amount of third world exploitation that they're happy to engage in to push green tech on us. Solar panels for all, constructed by Uyghurs in Chinese concentration camps, built from cobalt mined by Congolese children in illegal artisinal mines run by Glencore...fantastic. Maybe in a few decades there will be another case for reparations, only it'll be every single one of us that's genuinely complicit, then what do we do?

[@777jones]

But nobody cares about the cause.

[@samuelnewitt6978]

I've come to the conclusion that all Starmer is after is some well-paid directorship he hasn't realised yet he's not qualified for

[@susiebrig4722]

Always thought he wants to go way of Mandelson and Blair and biding time as PM getting to know powerful and wealthy preparing himself for a lucrative job, when he ceases to be PM.

[@The.world.has.gone.crazy...]

Yep

[@paulzon]

With sinecure jobs, being qualified is irrelevant. The salary is just a reward for services rendered whilst in government and contacts. The return on investment on buying these politicians is huge, especially since Tony Blair loosened the regulations in 2002.

[@oafee1053]

Keir Starmer is going to destroy working people. I dont have the words for how my deep my contempt for him is

[@MCDONALD6969]

Socialism doesn't work

[@alansmith4655]

They're terrified of taxing the mega rich.

[@MCDONALD6969]

@alansmith4655 why should the rich pay for the state??

[@denism8494]

@@MCDONALD6969 They have been the main beneficiaries of the state, for their entire lives in most cases. It's time for things to change.

[@samfourness4737]

Because they wouldn’t exist without it. Wealth cap is the only way out of this

[@Madaboutmada]

As a public service transportation planner in the US I can ABSOLUTELY confirm that consultants are a populated with a lot of fake it till you make it "experts". They are unaccountable and generate a lot of garbage which will ultimately be have to fixed... but always at a cost. Not all are incompetent, but a majority are. It's a drain of time and energy constantly correcting and cleaning up their messes.

[@kennethmarshall306]

@@Madaboutmada the trouble is, when top management call in the consultants everyone else is afraid to speak up in case they’re seen as unwilling to change

[@sichambers9011]

Sure. But what about profits?

[@Fdzzaigl]

We need to GTFO Blackrock, Vanguard and other private equity managers in Europe in general. Like are we really just not looking at what is happening in the US, or do we have some utter naive view that it could never happen here (it already is)?

[@The.world.has.gone.crazy...]

The problem is 95% of common people dont know nor understand what is going on. They are to busy with surviving and football. Bread and games. 😊

[@megm.c4026]

Way kinder to blackrock than I would be. Great convo, thanks.

[@roscojenkins7451]

Hot the nail on the head when he said black rock doesn't actually produce anything

[@wesleysmith4206]

If Labour bow down to corporations and don't bother helping working people and funding national services then Deform will get in and wer'e cooked

[@3v0lve_Music]

Reform say enough of the right things about the Davos set to get voters on side, but their policy of market deregulation and being hands off on business, hoping the supposedly free market will correct itself just gives them the kind of free reign that's got us here. Starmer is a lost cause when it comes to this, he's far too enamoured with them and his cosy secret meetings with Larry Fink are a massive red flag.

[@AndrewWoods-sm9vx]

at least population growth would be under control- might then see a rise in living standards

[@bramvanduijn8086]

@AndrewWoods-sm9vx You really believe that? Why would they solve migration when that is what got them the votes? I don't know if you've seen the kind of people that run the party, but they're all selfish scammers.

[@keef920]

You’ll end up like how we ended up in the states. The “left-leaning” (read: less neoliberal) Democratic Party bow down to the corpos despite everyone saying how living standards have dropped and the US ended up electing Trump and his Project 2025 cronies

[@coopsnz1]

Labor screw franchise owners that arent corporation . Marxist have always screwed over middle class & upper class in private sector

[@Pinstripe0451]

De-Carbonization under Capitalist logic was never really going to work.

[@Thenameishopper]

Gb news viewer here! And i watch as many of your episodes as i can lol

[@kieranbrady1240]

This will not do, see to it that that which will not do won't do and will never!

[@SusannaSaunders]

Why the fork would you watch GBNews? What possible insights do you believe they can give you?

[@kieranbrady1240]

@@SusannaSaunders nooo if ifs and buts were saucers and cups then I'd be mad as a hatter!

[@RogueDonut87]

From the US, studied engineering, and I would definitely be put in the lefty bucket. On oil for example, can we completely stop using it, absolutely not. But can we stop burning it for fuel and heating, absolutely. We need engineers everywhere these days.

[@rockonmadonna]

True, using natural gas produces about 25% less CO2 than using oil, but burning wood (“biomass” uninformed liberals promote) is actually worse, not to mention that we need our trees to use the CO2 and give us O2!

[@andresgarciacastro1783]

Of course it's not a 2 week thing. That's precisly the reason we should've started earlier. China is doing now what the west should have done 20 years ago (making clean energy soo cheap and available that everyone can just spam it).

[@annesuess2272]

A very good, but a depressing listen. I feel my whole life has been witnessing the downfall of standards for ordinary people in the uk. I'm not an economist, nor particularly clever, but when young common sense told me that selling off public assets such as British Rail and British Telecoms etc so that some people would profit rather than everyone, was a bad idea and would make services worse and ordinary people poorer. It didn't surprise me that it came to pass and selling off council housing was exactly the disaster it looked from the offset, but ordinary people didn't fight it because for once it felt like they were gaining from the system, (greed, but if everyone is doing it...!). Sadly, as a whole our society has predictably lost. It pains me everytime I see councils sell off what belongs to the people, write to them, sign petitions etc but it makes no difference and I just don't understand, especially when land has specifically been left to the people for the good of the people, how they get away with doing it. I can't see how anything is going to improve without a massive paradigm shift in people's consciousness and moral compass, but something huge has to happen for a shift like that. I suspect it will be natural. I think a few are making the change already, but I'm not sure it will remain a 'choice' for much longer. We are living on a finite world with a system demanding constant unsustainable growth from finite resources. The environment, people and all living things are stretched to breaking. It's just a question of when.

[@locuris]

I was a software developer for JPMC and now I'm at a medium scale-up and the culture was much better at JPMC - everyone was aware they were working for a big faceless company but also you could leave personalities at the door, you went in, did the job, went home, got paid. In the scale up it's rife with politics, ass kissing, and self-promotion. Also - this scale up just signed a partnership deal with Blackrock 😅

[@thepoliticalgardner]

The fact we are now paying for the lifestyles of US Elities and to feed rheir greed is just disgusting.

[@ClearGlassStudios281]

Citizens love it!

[@andresgarciacastro1783]

Feudalism is back, now with more serfs.

[@icytides]

Brett Christophers provides excellent insight in to the sector he previously worked in, and we need people like him in the left. But I think human nature will determine that the vast majority of people that enter in to his previous sector with good intent will get sucked in to it, never escape and slowly form justifications for why it's not that bad. As if being a management consultant is equal to working at the till of a cafe, as "they're both just working in jobs under capitalism". That argument doesn't quite cut it for me.

[@peterweston1356]

Novara Media is evolving into a first class independent minded left wing current affairs site. I particularly like Aaron’s interviews. I am centre right/ left (yes that’s possible) in outlook but trying to avoid being trapped in any particular echo chamber, this site is a godsend for me to help me question my preconceptions. Thanks Ps. I Iike Brett’s thinking.

[@stephen_pfrimmer]

Welcome back Brett. Thank you. And thank you Aaron (develop "superimperialism hypothesis"). Consider asking Gary back. And Ingrid and Angus.

[@ivanidlehand9651]

Because being rich means you can afford to be ignorant. Shits really like that. It’s sad people and critical thinking are complete strangers if not forever enemies.

[@stevenredpath9332]

The UK government is, and has always been, top heavy with power centred in the PM Office. I don’t think many people realise just how skewed political power is in the UK.

[@zzzzoijzzzzz]

Aaron Bastani is somehow the best interviewer, maybe it's just the great guests and the long form format. There are things that annoy me about him, but he just get's such great informative interviews and teaches me so much. Thanks Aaron.

[@kennethmarshall306]

What makes you think that lawyers don’t run businesses? Legal firms are businesses delivering legal services. Indeed, I seem to remember that Starmer did run his own legal business before becoming director of public prosecutions

[@peterellicott58]

This is what I like about this channel: it's of the left but it puts questions that counter the mainstream narrative 👍

[@Jard-z4i]

Same 👍

[@Muzikman127]

That's what the left is supposed to do

[@Muzikman127]

Channels like this can help demonstrate that there is actually a massive difference between the left and establishment liberalism (as represented currently by visionless voids of sneering nothingness like Starmer). Glad you're watching & keeping an open mind anyway :)

[@3v0lve_Music]

There are still some of us that are traditionally on the left that aren't so polarised that we don't realise there's still some common ground and areas of crossover with the right. We might disagree on solutions but at this point, just identifying the problem is enough.

[@roscojenkins7451]

Because mainstream media is by definition not left

[@Nebulorum]

I now want a debate between Brett and Gary (from Gary economics).

[@LdevArt]

both a pair of cranks

[@coRnflEks]

Inequality and financial pressure if felt here in Norway too, which no doubt is the driving force of why the "everyone else is doing it" excuse got started several years ago regarding fossil fuel extraction. I've encountered it regularly since, and found that it was spreading throughout the population. Only a few weeks ago, I heard it from a local cafeteria worker, and concluded it is now a commonly accepted excuse in Norway. I've always tried to counter it, but of course, people generally don't listen to the individual, only what they percieve society wants, and you always pay a social cost for the attempt. It's really sad to see, as I think this is a hugely detrimental to Norway's reputation and integrity. We should indeed be the ones spearheading the green transition.

[@kyrrekjlnerandersen13]

Det er bare å legge ned Norge, vi har solgt oss allerede.

[@Rhymosophy]

The country is up the spout. The Tories have left us with nowt after Boris and Brexit. And if there's some way to fix it Starmer will 'Rule it out.'

[@parallaxview2143]

Jolly good. Well done, Sir.

[@Nieosoba]

You can really hear from this that there is no left in UK. Nobody just some hollow out Labour which was never a great party and not much more. I don't think anyone is putting much hope in UK left

[@tonycook953]

Ideology trumped economics because the winner had to be subservience to Capital rather than accountability to the Proletariat.

[@vylbird8014]

Also a lot of people vote for whoever hates the same people they do. Social issues make a fantastic distraction, and ultimately have no impact on the businesses that really matter.

[@clivebroadhead4381]

How will BlackRock ensure the NHS builds the new hospitals under Labour that were promised by Johnson

[@blindbrad4719]

My heart weeps for the children of next year.

[@SusannaSaunders]

Your not alone. I'm an antinatalist because of what I've seen of this world's greed. I'm 61 now. Still no change in the pursuit of ever more MONEY!

[@andresgarciacastro1783]

@@SusannaSaunders As long as returns are bigger than growth, it is mathematically unavoidable that the rich will own everything. Their piece of the pie grows faster than the pie. This is a feature of the economic system, not a bug.

[@aroadtorome7683]

A humble offering for the almighty algorithm.

[@tamsinemily]

Brett Christopher’s first downstream has been my most rewatched! i had so many more questions after watching it ♥️

[@stewart572]

The bit 49mins in when Aaron reads the email is hilarious. These two bounce off each other well

[@kp6215]

Asking the “REAL” questions 😊

[@FraserBailey-jm5yz]

A very good and wide ranging conversation. Of course, I don't agree with everything, but Aaron continues to be pretty much the only person on the left worth listening to.

[@kieranbrady1240]

This will not do, see to it that that which will not do won't do and will never!

[@RogueDonut87]

This is my drug of choice! Speaking the truth on the financial realities we live in.

[@XXSmItHoX]

I'm a left wing Quantity Surveyor, happy to be Housing Minister come the revolution. Vote Green.

[@roineval]

Norway was one of the countries that savagely attacked Libya. Obviously oil related. The wars are central in global warming.

[@amberrichards8078]

The reality is the UK government should be supporting small businesses, and reining in Corporations and taxing them more and making sure they do not use tax evasion, to pay less tax to our country. These big businesses should not be allowed to influence governments. I have heard of Blockrock, but don’t know anything about them, till now. Thanks for sharing.

[@TheSpoovy]

That quote from Jonathan Reynolds (50:00) is almost unbelievable; I had to check to see if it was real. It is. It's so depressing that such deeply ignorant room meat like this person have so much power and influence over us all.

[@OneDullMan]

I have experienced the working environment where government either #1 does not trust its own people to do good or #2 wants to guarantee profit to the private sector. I worked for a mid cized city in its property / real estate development branch. Despite being government, we routinely provided profits back to the council to subsidize taxes. Yet every year, the government representatives publicly debated whether our department should exist or whether the private sector could do it better. Disheartening. Would love to see a discussion of which government assets have been given away / sold off / privatized that ended up being a great deal for the government OR resulted in the government dodging a big expense.

[@zf1615]

Technical note- Could you please high-pass the sound at say 40-50hz for these in future? Whenever they lean on/touch the table there is an unnerving thud which is distracting. It's never present on Novara live but always present on Downstream. The sound is otherwise great on this I think. Edit: just in case "thud" gives the wrong message, it's very low pitch, can only hear it on headphones or big bass bins

[@Muzikman127]

At least they're not one mic hard panned to each ear this time 😅

[@ConnieFWill]

socialist audio has come a long way if these are the complaints we're getting now

[@Rockyzach88]

I'm a "left wing engineer". We're listening and learning. The cat is out of the bag.

[@mjc01]

So good. So fucking depressing.

[@kieranbrady1240]

This will not do, see to it that that which will not do won't do and will never!

[@ce9191]

Is it more scary when Keir knows what he is talking about, or when he has no idea?

[@FraserBailey-jm5yz]

This guy talked quite a lot of sense until the end, when he praised Miliband's department. Miliband will do more damage to this country than anyone ever. We almost had a blackout a couple of days ago during the cold spell, and we are about to run out of gas. Our industry pays four times what US industry pays for energy, and domestic customers pay four times more. We have lost 200,000 jobs in industry since 2010. The whole thing is insane.

[@karenrock3864]

Fossil fuel use is killing us. We are in the sixth mass extinction. We are now fighting to minimise the billions of human deaths and animal extinction which we, the survivors anyway,will witness

[@EamonCoyle]

I knew I had watched Brett before and my memory of it was definitely a good one !!

[@noneofyourbiz112]

"I don't know where DOGE could possibly cut" Are you effing kidding me???

[@dorincucos2197]

British people, bless your innocent, hopeful, foolish souls. You see the most blatant examples of corruption, yet tell yourselves it must just be past incompetence or stupidity.

[@shawnandrew_artist]

Excellent program, well done!

[@o0lama0o]

That was a very nice chat. Felt very friendly :)

[@R2ndome]

Ooo. I started to think he sounds a bit too centrist for my mind. Then he defended consultancy. Then he wouldn't denounce th privatisation of infrastructure outright. Then, he said BRIDISH!!? I gave it a chance, I still can't stomach these educated liberals desperate to prove they th ones clever nuff to jus tweak capitalism and it's gunna b alright. I don't like him.

[@jimpaddy79]

I don’t think he really did any of those things.

[@tonywalker7602]

Me either

[@HughWP6683]

I hope when starmer tries to become a business consultant they tell him "sorry we don't hire the children of tool makers"

[@timharris6652]

Is one of the reasons so much public land was sold at a loss that land ownership itself is so intentionally difficult to investigate?

[@paolaamatosabatelli3025]

Add to what's said is that money is "fiat"...indeed an abracadabra!

[@shirihotep3741]

Always worth to Brett Christophers!

[@eamonnosullivan5412]

Novara media rocks !

[@ChEs-qi3tl]

Could you do an interview investigating the negative effects of ISDS agreements, they don't only affect countries in the global south but can extort (and prevent progress on fossil fuel extraction I believe it was Denmark, that had to push forward climate policies to avoid legal action). In my view this is a subject we all need to learn more about and expose.

[@nicholastorres44]

How could anyone be “serious” about climate change when nobody in the Paris climate accords apart from the US really paid into the system, had produced the majority of there own energy, and whose economy wasn’t largely based on a US trade defecit. Its like where’s your autonomy required to take accountability of your own actions?

[@ChEs-qi3tl]

Question to Brett: understood you work at Uppsala Uni. Hope I understood that correctly. Are you lecturing and publishing in English or Swedish?

[@DrHarryLime-k4m]

Partly because Governments need consultants to "unpack" anything. Lost the art of management

[@ChEs-qi3tl]

Regarding politicians thinking or at least stating Blackrock has been/will be beneficial for anything or -one but Blackrock...it's either total ignorance or some skin in the game.

[@murrayg]

Bastani's delivery is turning into Peston's. Can this stop please? It's hurting my ears and soul.

[@anesu846]

The generation that grew up on the internet is starting to be affected by all this stuff. That’s why we care!

[@JoseCarlosBataliniBatalini]

If you are not in the financial market space right now, you are making a huge mistake. I understand that it could be due to ignorance, but if you want to make your money work for you...prevent inflation

[@SandraGoldxix]

Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the crypto market as it's more profitable. I make a good amount of money per week even though I barely trade for myself.

[@HansenKyle]

You trade also?, I

[@JoshuaW-j9m]

No I don't trade on my own anymore, I always required help and assistance

[@JoshuaW-j9m]

From my personal financial advisor

[@HansenKyle]

This sounds so good and I would like to be a party to this, Is there any way I can speak with him directly because I need him to trade for me so that I can get my property back

[@andeesduores7198]

Key point: Since the 07 financial crisis Banks have not been able to make such invewtments due to tighter capital constraints. Asset managers arent constrained and can take a more prominent role

[@Matman2099]

I think people can see ESG as just disingenuous when corporations are looking at it from a profit standpoint.

[@clivebroadhead4381]

The Government of Singapore made it law for all land to be sold to the state at the 1973 prices. It was then sold for a profit at the current market price.

[@jimpaddy79]

When did that happen?

[@alistairrobinson3865]

Working in private sector finance/manufacturing , we are under massive pressure, so cooperate as a survival mechanism, there is no time to debate and have arguments about everything, pragmatism takes over, would be great fun to go into academia and actually theorize intentionally about stuff!

[@okatzl369]

This also made me think of Graeber and how many people are just in bullshit jobs but don't have an alternative. Sorry to hear the workplace mood is one of survival - I think the left should also start talking about work-life balance and agility. So that people don't get stuck. Imagine how many people become toxic from that and could finally feel hope. I worked at a university in my country and this survival/stuckness was terrible for work culture.

[@bobbresnahan8397]

Do the Black Rocks add a single iota of social value to the economy?

[@frankshailes3205]

Trickle down?

[@stewart572]

Aaron the bit where you went, when you was reading the email, ‘he has no idea what he’s talking about’ and then my guy bret when ‘fluff, pure fluff’ and then Aaron when ‘chatGPT’

[@BookerTDooku]

Very informative video in general. The tax point is really interesting, it hadn't occurred to me that income tax might be leveraged more locally. Strikes me as a hangover of parliament's appropriation of royal powers - the king takes tax for themselves, not to reinvest in local communities.

[@grodesby3422]

Note that Musk has been having private discussions with Cummings, so he may be going in prepared.

[@frankshailes3205]

Cummings desperate to ride the latest gravy train? Figures.

[@nicolaford7510]

It is overshoot...a deliberate choice to allow the world to heat up whilst investing in climate related world saving tech that crucially actually saves capitalism from more revolutionary change .

[@Alex-od7nl]

Consultants (in both public and private sector) are a TOTAL grift. Guest hit it nail on the head when he said that is a CYA move for executives, but what he failed to mention was that it is also job security for executives. If they rely on their subordinates to do the work of consultants, then that would mean the subordinates are more qualified than the executives (which is often the case), and executives do not want that truth to become evident.

[@JimboJimbo-i4i]

It’s not difficult to understand why the PM is speaking to BlackRock… They are the largest Asset Manager in the world, whilst they don’t decide what to invest in themselves (their client’s do), they can market products to clients. The UK needs investment money, badly. The reason the FTSE has an atrocious multiple is because there simply isn’t demand for the shares. That in turn makes it unattractive for anyone to list on creating a doomed loop. You can grow via increased tax.

[@marcustait79]

57:00 Absolutely spot on! These people are blatantly not interested in the wellbeing of their fellow human beings and should consequently not be allowed near the levers of fiscal or political power!!!!

[@rollyon9415]

As a righty, it’s good to hear from smart lefties. Totally agree about consultants, I always think it just proves management don’t know what they are doing if they bring in consultants. Having said that smart people like Brett can always add value I would say. From my right side I agree ESG is dying with DEI too for that matter but I don’t think it’s all negative. I think change comes bottom up and people working in capitalism even favouring it also want to be greener, just aren’t convinced that too down Cop etc is the way to achieve it. Technologies like solar can now be cheaper than other energies and so economically that change makes sense. Of course solar has been funded to this stage by China principally but still forcing top down change rarely works broadly, that’s my righty thinking speaking. It’s also good to hear the recognition that people in business are generally just normal people because I do think the left is too ready to demonise big oil, big pharma, big tech, the military complex etc for acting in consciously concerted ways that act against what is best for all, but I don’t see that being the case. They are working to satisfy a market in general that represents aggregated individuals demands. Maybe change is due but that ahem Marxist oppressor and oppressed mindset is just not an accurate view of the world, in my opinion.

[@MJ_Brennan]

Govt need to reclaim the wealth attained by the super wealthy as a result of COVID.

[@georgelionon9050]

The main issue with ESG was not necessarily that people stopped caring if their investments was good or bad, it just wasnt accurate like at all, Tesla was for long on top of ESG for long, and Musk in turned financed Bitcoin power usage with it (no I dont want to argue BTC in principle, but no it really is not ESG). There are countless of other examples that slapped the ESG label onto them, that intuitively shouldnt have it, and others that didnt should.

[@mattsharpey361]

2 very moderate, centre-left (at best) guys sitting around defending capitalism, attacking the actual left calling themselves “lefties”… Quaint.

[@deadfish3789]

Did they attack the left? I didn't hear it. Same with defending capitalism

[@robertskeen1427]

Blackstone - Blackrock?? Sound like something we need to call Jason Bourne about .

[@olamilekanakala7542]

I want to point out what seems like a massive misunderstanding of what ESG actually is/does by this video. ESG really has nothing to do with investing in an ethically progressive way. ESG metrics, at their core, investigate whether a company has incorporated ESG risk factors into its vision for long-term profitability. So you can have a company that is terrible for the environment and society and has lousy governance practices. Still, if their current and future practices aren't financially affected by ESG risks, they would have a high ESG rating.

[@YouConnolly]

When you get an ETF, the ETF company gets your vote and can control the future vote in many companies

[@debborodin2813]

When was this first aired?

[@stewart572]

Make the segment where you’re both chewing over the email into a short and put it up on KZbin and watch it blow up. Trust me that bit really does highlight the bland, meaningless nonsense these politicians chat. Blackrock supporting small business and transition to a green economy WTF are these idiots talking about.

[@John-bc9ml]

🎯

[@robertbullock6360]

You both are wrong. ESG isn’t being abandoned because the people don’t believe the govt is serious about climate. It’s because they are disenfranchised and excluded

[@theleadsheetspecialist1434]

Aaron! Can you interview dave fishwick? Please he has his building society in a very poor town up north but he is serving his community!!!

[@BadrunAmershi]

The theme is quite important -only if the 2 guys can speak normal "English"!! The is 80% provincial dialect -20% proper language! It sound like a small brawl in a village pub.

[@vivan10]

I love his point about the left moralising the financial workplace

[@ghoey4118]

Land values increasing in value was eminently predictable. What’s the old adage… ‘Buy land ‘cos they’re not making any more of it’