Germany state election: SPD faces challenge from rising AfD

As we can see in the USA, Italy and now Germany disillusionment of a large core of voters has lead to populism creating binary differences and scapegoating with a return of neo-fascism (it fills the political vacuum as the left has moved rightward).<br><br>We do have solutions but the mainstream economics, the advisors to politicians and politicians ignore the advice. Why ... they ignore empirical evidence, not trained in difficult maths (equilibrium vrs system dynamics modelling eg Minsky /Ravel), a genuine belief that neoliberalism reaches an economic nirvana, free markets are best, status quo suits the wealthy and their political minions.<br><br>The alternative is a politics of care and an economics of hope.<br><br>- recognise that MMT Modern Monetary Theory is a fair description of how the government creates money then taxes<br>and that the constraints are not financial but resources (people, raw materials, factories,...)<br>- rebuilding industry and green infrastructure (reduce climate crisis impacts for future generations) and<br>- putting wealth to work (pension funds to invest in the real economy},...<br>- lots of small non profit local banks lending to business entrepreneurs,<br>- direction from Central banks to private banks to lend for the real economy (not financial speculation),<br>- Taxing Wealth Report 2024 using existing taxes, £90bn possible <br>- a debt jubilee <br>- reducing house prices without homeowners loosing equity <br>- house loans at max 10 times rental income<br>- housing not financed by new money creation ie. funded by deposits in building societies<br>- tier the Central Bank Reserves CBRA interest rates (a standard practice in the ECB and Bank of Japan, this is not some mad theory), and you can guarantee saving £7Bn minimum<br>- put the FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) back into its box, particularly many of its toxique financial instruments such as derivatives.<br>etc.<br><br>In Europe an overhaul of the Maastricht Treaty that enshrines arbitary spending limits and a unit of account to reduce trade imbalances between euro currency similar to Keynes Bancor would be a start.<br><br>See heterodox economists Steve Keen (The New Economics: A Manifesto, patreon substack blog sites ProfSteveKeen), Richard Murphy (Taxing Wealth Report 2024, Green New Deal, blog site Tax Research/ Funding the Future, substack The Politics of Care Richard J Murphy), Richard Werner (Princes of the Yen), Michael Hudson (J is for Junk Economics, Suuperimperalism), Clara E. Mattei (How Economists Invented Austerity &amp; Paved the Way to Fascism) , Abby Innes (Late Soviet Britain), David Graeber (Debt: The First 5000 Years)