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Capitalism after the Coronavirus

(Keynote)
5-6 PM Live on YouTube and Facebook + Intro & Q&A on Zoom

(#Re-designing Infrastructures) Our global economic model was already broken before the Covid-19 epidemic

Paul Mason argues that our global economic model was already broken before the Covid-19 epidemic, and not just because of the problems contingent on the 2008 crisis. In his keynote lecture, he will discuss the need to rethink capitalism as a transitional economic form, promoting peer-production, automation, the network effect and information democracy.

On July 2nd at 17:00 CET, you can watch the keynote lecture on our Economia Festival YouTube channel and Baltan Laboratories Facebook Page, where the recording will remain accessible afterwards.

In addition to watching his lecture, there is the opportunity to join the conversation in a live Q&A with Paul Mason. If you want to join this Q&A, please register by sending an email to info@baltanlaboratories.org. We will provide you with the zoom link to join the session. The room will be open from 16:30 on, at 16:45 we will start with an introduction.

Paul Mason is a writer, broadcaster and film-maker who speaks on the areas of economics, globalisation and the future of capitalism. As Economics Editor for Channel 4 News from 2013-2015 he covered all aspects of the UK and global economy, markets, labour and commerce.

Previous to his role as Economics Editor, Paul was Channel 4’s Culture and Digital Editor examining the social, cultural and business impact of the new age of digital and online.

Between 2001 until 2013 Paul worked on BBC2’s Newsnight programme, firstly as Business & Industry Correspondent, and then as Economics Editor. Paul’s first live appearance on Newsnight was on the day of the September 11 attacks in 2001 and during his time working on the programme, he covered stories as diverse as the corporate scandals of Enron and Worldcom, Hurricane Katrina, gang violence in Liverpool, the social impact of mobile phones in Africa, and the rise of Aymara nationalism in Bolivia. In 2008 Mason appeared as the key talent in a new five-part BBC series Credit Crash Britain.

Paul has written a series of books covering contemporary economics and politics, including ‘PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future’(2015), in which he discusses the threat posed to capitalism by the digital revolution – its potential to reshape our notions of work, production and value; and to destroy an economy based on markets and private ownership. In ‘Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere’, he shined a light on the new activism, from cyber-protest in the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement. In ‘Live Working Or Die Fighting: How The Working Class Went Global’, he examined the epic history of the labour movement; and in Meltdown he explored ‘the age of greed’.

Paul’s latest book is Clear Bright Future: A radical defence of the human being (Allen Lane 2019). Paul has recently been awarded the prestigious Erich Fromm Prize 2020.