Grace Blakeley: From Vulture Capitalism to Alternative Futures

According to Grace Blakeley everything you know about capitalism is wrong. Free markets aren’t really free. Record corporate pro­fits don’t trickle down to everyone else. And we aren’t empowered to make our own choices – they’re made for us every day.

Based on her literary work, economist Grace Blakeley (UK) will take on modern capitalism and the world’s most influential corporations and look towards alternative futures based on economic democracy.

Minja Koskela, Heikki Pursiainen and Patrizio Lainá will give the first remarks after Blakeleys speech and after that there will be a discussion with the public. Moderator: Mia Haglund.

Keynote

Grace Blakeley (UK) is a staff writer at Tribune Magazine and author of several books, including ’Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom’. She is the former economics commentator for the New Statesman, and a former Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research.

Commentators

Minja Koskela is chairperson of the Left Alliance. She has a master’s degree in social sciences and a doctoral degree in music. Koskela has written three non-fiction books. The books cover issues of feminism, the equality of the Finnish school system, and motherhood.

Heikki Pursiainen is a liberal economist who has worked as a researcher, civil servant, journalist and consultant in a varied career. His output includes books, columns, blogs and social media posts.

Patrizio Lainà has a PhD in Political Science and is the Chief Economist of The Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK). Lainà is a well-known expert who is often involved in public debate and media commentary on current economic issues. He is also an active writer and has published several articles and reports on economic policy.

Photo of Minja Koskela: Antti Yrjönen