Is AI destroying the planet?

Contributor(s): Will Hutton, Professor Robert Kuttner, Professor Stephanie J. Rickard | Since the 1990s, progressive parties have tended to combine globalist neoliberal policies with avant-garde social views. Life steadily became more precarious for large numbers of working people, who lost confidence in traditional left-of-center parties. Economically stressed and culturally conservative lower- and middle-income voters found themselves no political champion and turned increasingly to the nationalist, authoritarian right. This trend is in drastic contrast to the economics of the postwar boom, when the center-left and center-right shared basic assumptions about how to manage and regulate capitalism. Global trade and migration expanded at a socially bearable pace that did not undermine national social contracts. The politics of that era produced economic security for ordinary people and strengthened democratic institutions. With the loss of confidence in both center-left parties and in democracy itself, what is a conceivable road back to building a society that is both dynamic and secure, and that restores a believable center-left?

Contributor(s): Professor Gudni Jóhannesson, Professor Kristina Spohr | President Trump’s determination to increase American influence and presence in Greenland has generated great interest in the future of the world’s largest island and its surrounding regions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While Trump's offhand idea of purchasing Greenland is preposterous, it jolted the Danish government and its European NATO/EU allies. At the same time, the evident US-Danish tensions may have increased the Greenlanders’ resolve to move faster towards full independence in the not-too-distant future. Iceland is Greenland’s closest neighbour in Europe. In 1944, Iceland declared full independence from Denmark, at a time when Greenland was still a Danish colony. When the Icelanders severed their final ties with their erstwhile masters in Copenhagen, there were doubters among the Great Powers about this small nation’s ability to stand on its own feet in a bipolar world. Similar words can be heard today about the capabilities of some 57,000 Greenlanders and their national aspirations when so many have their eyes on the Arctic. This event will focus on the current position and future developments of these two countries in the Arctic and the North Atlantic at large.

Contributor(s): Professor Valerie Ramey | Join us for the 2025 Economica-Phillips Lecture which will be delivered by Valerie Ramey. Starting in the 1930s, Keynesian fiscal stimulus was the leading policy tool for fighting recessions, but it subsequently fell out of favor with the discovery of the permanent income hypothesis and evidence for the effectiveness of monetary policy. However, Keynesian fiscal stimulus re-emerged as an important policy tool when interest rates hit the effective lower bound during the Global Financial Crisis. Most policymakers and many academics now believe that temporary transfers, infrastructure spending, and other types of government purchases and tax programs are effective ways to fight recessions. This lecture revisits the evidence for this view. Using a variety of methods to check the plausibility of some of the leading estimates and models, it identifies cases in which these types of spending did not appear to stimulate the macroeconomy as intended. It also discusses the costs of fiscal stimulus, both in terms of the ratcheting up of the government debt-GDP ratio and the negative effects of distortionary tax finance on GDP.

Contributor(s): Dr Suleman Lazarus, Professor Andrew Murray, Lisa Mills, Nikki MacLeod | This episode of LSE iQ looks at how we can avoid falling for online scams. We think it couldn’t happen to us, but incidents of online fraud are escalating at an alarming rate, affecting all areas of our day-to-day lives, from social media and dating apps to banking and business. As AI deepfakes and impersonation tactics become more advanced, scammers are finding new ways to exploit us, leaving victims emotionally and financially devastated. In this episode Oliver Johnson talks to a victim of a devastating romance scam, he hears about what motivates some of the fraudsters and what legal protections we have in the battle against the scammers. Contributors: Dr Suleman Lazarus, Professor Andrew Murray, Lisa Mills, Nikki MacLeod Research: Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice, Dr Suleman Lazarus et al Examining fifty cases of convicted online romance fraud offenders Dr Suleman Lazarus et al Information Technology Law Professor Andrew Murray Rethinking the Jurisprudence of Cyberspace Professor Andrew Murray et al LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science. We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Professor Michèle Lamont | Join us for this lecture in which Michèle Lamont will discuss her book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Heal a Divided World. She will also discuss ongoing collaborative research on whether and how American and British young workers in the “two Manchesters” are searching for recognition through politics; how indigenous people in Canada and Micronesia are seeking recognition through environmental justice and jobs, and the challenge of seeking recognition where it is impossible to obtain.