A society free from poverty: how do we get there and what would it look like?

Contributor(s): Anthony Scaramucci | Anthony Scaramucci, LSE alumnus and American financier and broadcaster, who briefly served as the White House Director of Communications, joins LSE's President Larry Kramer for a conversation about his visions for the future. This recording contains strong language.

Contributor(s): Professor Daron Acemoglu | Daron Acemoglu, LSE alumnus and co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, whose work has provided new insights into why there are such vast differences in prosperity between nations, will be in conversation with LSE's President Larry Kramer, on his visions for the future and will speak about Remaking Liberalism. Democracy (and in fact liberal democracy) was successful in bringing shared prosperity, reliable public services, and a voice for citizens. But there have been major problems in its agenda, hurting its support across a wide range of constituencies. The talk will present ideas about how we can bolster support for democracy, and what this involves in terms of a new conceptualisation of liberal democracy and liberalism.

Contributor(s): Dr Hilary Cottam, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Professor Jack Stilgoe | New technology and AI are transforming the labour market at an unprecedented pace, often reinforcing existing inequalities and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. It is widely believed that without intervention, this trend will continue, creating a society where a handful of tech billionaires thrive while countless others struggle with low wages and job insecurity. But is this future inevitable? What are the potential scenarios going forward? How can we rethink the way technological innovation is structured to ensure its benefits are more widely shared? Is there an alternative to a winner-takes-all model which creates billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk while pushing many into low paid work?

Contributor(s): Stan Boland, Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Kanishka Narayan | Driven in large part by the rapid growth of the tech sector, the US economy has diverged from other advanced economies. Despite significant strengths in research, much of Europe has been unable to translate this into the type of large digital firms which have become so important to the modern economy. What are the barriers to developing a thriving tech sector outside of the US? Can European states compete in the tech sector and should they try? What is the future of these advanced economies, if they cannot compete in the industries of the future?

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Professor Margaret Levi, Professor Dani Rodrik | A generation ago, the so-called Washington Consensus laid out a series of do’s and don’ts for policymakers around the world, but it fell short by neglecting the social and institutional underpinnings indispensable for achieving sustained growth and building fairer and more cohesive societies. What new ideas —and policies— can guide us through the challenges humanity faces today?