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Welcome to "It's the economy stupid" here you can download and hear the interviews from the live shows that take place every Monday night at the Etcetera Theatre in London.
Like many folk I watch the meltdown of the economy with a mixture of fear and incomprehension, so I decided to do a show about it. I know, doing a show based on my own ignorance doesn't sound like a winning formula. So I started by inviting economists, academics, MP's and trade unionists to find out what is going on. Rather than spectate the sinking of HMS UK I have asked my guests for solutions to our current woes. These are hopefully serious questions and interviews, but accessible and fun.
In the first show Mark interviewed Sargon Nissan from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Austin Mitchell, labour MP for Grimsby. Sargon is an interesting chap, he started his working life as a city trader and ended up specialising in community finance with the progressive think tank NEF. Which is not to say Austin Mitchell is not interesting, as the Guardian Diary (last item on the page) noted.
Sargon starts with Northern Rock and where it all went wrong, and examines the potential of credit unions.
Austin Mitchell discuses how the collapse of council housing impacted on the building bubble and puts forward some of his own ideas about what should be done next.
In the second show, Mark interviewed Dr Paulo Dos Santos from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
In the third show Mark talks to some activists about RBS. Laura Applegate from The London Coalition Against Poverty, Bronwen Smith-Thomas from People and Planet and Kev Smith from Platform. In part 2 he talks to Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB.
In the fourth show Mark talks to John Christensen from the tax justice network about tax havens, tax avoidance/evasion, CDOs and bananas. In part 2 he talks about similar issues to Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at the University of Essex. In part 3 they continue the theme, suggesting their fiscal policies to prevent another credit crunch.
In the fifth show, Mark talks to Faisal Rahman from the Fair Finance Campaign, Sargon Nissan and Vince Cable, deputy leader of the Lib-Dems and MP for Twickenham.
In the sixth show, Mark talks to Nick Dearden, Richard Brooks (Guardian and Private Eye) and Caroline Lucas, MEP and leader of the Green party.
In show seven Mark talks to Paul Mason From Newsnight, Nick Hildyard from The Corner House and Josh Ryan Collins from The New Economics Foundation.
Eighth show due soon.
In the ninth show, Mark talks to Richard Wilkinson, co-author of "The Spirit Level" and Gerry Gold, member of LEAP and author of "House of Cards".
In show ten, Mark talks to Hugh Willmott of the Cardiff Business School and Costas Lapavitsas from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
To download these episodes, right click on the links below and select whatever "save" option your browser has to save to your local computer. Alternatively subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here. There is also an rss feed here.
First show - 12th January 2009 (part 1) - Interview with Sargon Nissan (18 MBytes, 25:58 minutes)
First show - 12th January 2009 (part 2) - Interview with Austin Mitchell (15 MBytes, 21:22 minutes)
Second show - 19th January 2009 - Interview with Dr Paulo Dos Santos (25 MBytes, 34:56 minutes)
Third show - 26th January 2009 (Part 1) - Interviews with activists (12 MBytes, 16:42 minutes)
Third show - 26th January 2009 (Part 2) - Interview with Paul Kenny (13 MBytes, 19:07 minutes)
Fourth show - 2nd February 2009 (Part 1) - Interview with John Christensen (18 MBytes, 24:54 minutes)
Fourth show - 2nd February 2009 (Part 2) - Interview with Prem Sikka (16 MBytes, 21:54 minutes)
Fourth show - 2nd February 2009 (Part 3) - Interview with Prem Sikka and John Christensen (16 MBytes, 22:12 minutes)
Fifth show - 16th February 2009 (Part 1) - Interview with Faisal Rahman (13 MBytes, 17:15 minutes)
Fifth show - 16th February 2009 (Part 2) - 2nd Interview with Sargon Nissan (18 MBytes, 24:40 minutes)
Fifth show - 16th February 2009 (Part 3) - Interview with Vince Cable (23 MBytes, 32:12 minutes)
Sixth show - 23rd February 2009 (Part 1) - Interview with Nick Dearden (10 MBytes, 13:11 minutes)
Sixth show - 23rd February 2009 (Part 2) - Interview with Richard Brooks (23 MBytes, 32:01 minutes)
Sixth show - 23rd February 2009 (Part 3) - Interview with Caroline Lucas (14 MBytes, 19:14 minutes)
Seventh show - 2nd March 2009 (Part 1) - Interview with Paul Mason (26 MBytes, 34:31 minutes)
Seventh show - 2nd March 2009 (Part 2) - Interview with Nick Hildyard (17 MBytes, 20:58 minutes)
Seventh show - 2nd March 2009 (Part 3) - Interview with Josh Ryan-Collins (8 MBytes, 9:49 minutes)
Ninth show - 16th March 2009 (Part 1) - Interview with Richard Wilkinson (15 MBytes, 19:28 minutes)
Ninth show - 16th March 2009 (Part 2) - Interview with Gerry Gold (23 MBytes, 30:43 minutes)
Tenth show - 23rd March 2009 (Part 1) - Inteview with Hugh Willmott (20 MBytes, 26:05 minutes)
Tenth show - 23rd March 2009 (Part 2) - Inteview with Costas Lapavitsas (15 MBytes, 20:30 minutes)
More coming soon...
Mark on Newsnight - 01/04/2009
Mark was chatting with Douglas Alexander and others:
Part 2 is here
Mark at G20 Rally 28/03/2009
Stirring stuff:
DAILY MAIL PROTEST
Outside Daily Mail HQ, Derry Street, Kensington:
MOD PROTEST
The MOD building is owned off-shore!
MARK ON CHANNEL 4 NEWS
Yesterday's photo/media event made the Channel 4 news, watch it on More4 News here.
Here's another video by Bryony and Keira from truetube:
Treasury Protest
Recent protest outside the Treasury: