Western capitalism is in crisis. For decades investment has been falling, living standards have stagnated or declined, and inequality has risen dramatically. Economic policy has neither reformed the financial system nor restored stable growth. Climate change meanwhile poses increasing risks to future prosperity.

In this interview, Michael Jacobs, outlines some of the world’s leading economists proposed new ways of thinking about capitalism.

Michael joined IPPR as a visiting fellow in January 2016, initially leading IPPR’s work on energy, transport and climate change, and then acting as interim research director before taking up the position of director of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice.

Michael is an economist and visiting professor in the School of Public Policy at University College London. From 2004–2007 he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers at the Treasury, and from 2007–2010 a special adviser to the prime minister, with responsibility for energy, environment and climate policy. From 2010–2015 he advised governments and others on international climate change policy in the run-up to the UN Climate Conference in Paris in December 2015. He was a founder and senior adviser to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, for whose reports Better Growth, Better Climate (2014) and Seizing the Global Opportunity (2015) he was a lead author.

Michael is a former general secretary of the Fabian Society, an academic at Lancaster University and the LSE, and managing director of an employee-owned consultancy business.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 24, 2017