Articles & Press 2016
ARTICLES & PAPERS
- Feb 11th: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD): How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance? (Working Paper)
- Feb 15th: Guardian Sustainable Business: Ditching tobacco and arms does not make you an ethical investor
- Feb 22nd: The Long+Short (NESTA): You are the Robots
INTERVIEW & MEDIA APPEARANCES
- Sözcü (Turkey): Parayı zenginler topluyor dünyada eşitsizlik artıyor
- Debanked: “Bitcoin Lending As a Concept Has Problems”
Articles & Press 2015
ARTICLES & PAPERS
- September: Guardian Sustainable Business: £1984: does a cashless economy make for a surveillance state? A piece speculating on what a cashless society would mean for privacy, monetary policy and economic alternatives
- August: Guardian Sustainable Business: Open data can unravel the complex dealings of multinationals: Modern accounting is inadequate to account for the dealings of large corporates. That's why we need to build an alternative accounting sector
- August: Aeon Magazine: The Hacker Hacked: An article on the gentrification of the hacker ethos. It's a big long-form piece, but caused a fair amount of debate on various hacker forums
- April: Facta (Brazil): Hacking the future of money: A piece on hacker dynamics in the amazing Brazilian art-punk mag Facta. In Portuguese and English
- March 24th: Kings Review: A dark knight is better than no knight at all: why we need Bitcoin despite its flaws
- March 11th: Guardian Sustainable Business: We need to attack the morality of fossil fuel investment: A piece I wrote on the two approaches taken by divestment campaigns - either talk within the existing terms of debate set by the investment industry, or redefine those terms
- Musiques Cultures Digitales: Much Soul, Very Emotion: Why I buy into the cult of Dogcoin: My article on Dogcoin is featured in both French and English version of MCD's 'We Grow Money, We Eat Money, We Shit Money' edition
- Guardian Education supplement: The economics of languages degrees (no online version available)
- Supramarkt (book): Dark Side Anthropology & the Art of Financial Culturehacking
- Robin Cosgrove Prize Finalist essay: Blockchain Technology for Reputation Scoring of Financial Actors
- Spanda Journal: Open Source Financial Hacking
- FS Focus (ICAEW): The pitfalls of cashless society
- November: VPRO Backlight: The Bitcoin Gospel
- November: Keiser Report: Cashless society
- October: Ouishare Magazine: On the illusion of money (Interview): An interview on money with Arthur de Grave, originally published in French for Socialter
- October: Reinvent Money: Interview with Paul Buitink
- Sanatatak (Turkey), Oct 2015: "Finansı anlamak aktivizm için elzem"
- September: ABC Radio (Sunday Extra): The Gentrification of Hacking (Interview): Talking about my Aeon Magazine article 'The Hacker Hacked' with Jonathan Green on Australian national radio
- March: World Finance (Interview): How will financial services evolve? Two video interviews where I talk about how financial services will evolve, and also about some ethical dynamics of investment
Articles & Press 2014
ARTICLES
- STIR Magazine: The promise & problems of open source finance hacking: Article in my favourite magazine on co-operative commons culture. It goes into open source culture, the meaning of hacking, and plans to build the London School of Financial Arts
- Wisdomhackers: The political economy of urban ecology: A follow-up essay to my popular piece Bringing the Jungle to the City, written as part of the Wisdomhackers collective, and published on the great publishing startup The Pigeonhole
- CNN.com: Five ways to start a financial revolution: Part of CNN's series on the Future of Finance. I use Wikipedia as an analogy for what kind of financial system we'd like to see, and go through five areas of innovation
- Contributoria: Breaching the monetary matrix: A long read, all about money and how to understand it. It goes through a series of exercises to help illuminate different monetary mysteries
- CNN.com: Is hacking the future of finance?: Exploring hacker philosophy and it's application to the world of high finance. Part of CNN's series on the Future of Finance
- E-International Relations: Blockchain Politics: An article exploring the political dynamics of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the visions of the future projected by the Bitcoin community
- Contributoria: Bringing the Jungle to the City: This is a big essay I wrote on how to reconnect urban life to ecological reality. It's part of my involvement in the Wisdomhackers collective. Delving into the depths of urban life, finance, ecology and culture.
- Spears Magazine: Active Duty: Philanthroactivism: My article in the wealth management magazine Spears, talking about three disruptive things high net worth individuals can do with their money, including shareholder activism, and backing the underdog
- Contributoria: Crowdfunding critical thought: A piece written about journalism crowfunding on the collaborative journalism platform Contributoria. I discuss platforms like Indie Voices, Inkshares, Uncoverage and Beacon Reader
- Coindesk (Feb): The Rise of the Cryptocurrency Gift Economy: Exploring the use of cryptocurrencies in online gift economies, considering whether there something inherent in their design that suits them to gift exchanges, and why we should care
- New Scientist: Three Scenarios for the Future of Bitcoin: A short piece in New Scientist Magazine (and online) musing on potential scenarios for the future of cryptocurrency. Will it be hijacked by corporates, a desperate nation, or be used to build an autonomous online economy?
- Wired Mag (UK edition): Tactical Tech: Got a short piece in latest Wired Magazine about the Tactical Tech Collective. Online link to hopefully follow soon
- Guardian Sustainable Business (7th Jan): The battle for sustainable finance must be waged on four fronts: Part 3 of my series on reforming pension funds. This article looks at broader campaigns we need in society to combat unsustainable investment
INTERVIEWS & MEDIA APPEARANCES
- Co-op News: The finance heretic: how a more co-operative finance system can be created
- Chatting up a Storm with Claudia Cragg: Interview: Chatting to veteran journalist and broadcaster Claudia Cragg about my book, and about financial campaigns around the world
- New Books in Political Science: Interview with Heath Brown: Chatting to Heath Brown of New Books in Political Science about The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance.
- Shareable Magazine: Interview: Chatting to Darren Sharp about financial hacking, sharing economies, peer to peer, co-operatives and open source finance
- Artist Taxi Driver: Interview: A fun two-part conversation with Mark McGowan (aka 'The Artist Taxi Driver'), set in his car in a Camberwell alley. Check Part 1 and then Part 2. We talk about everything from military-finance complex to student debt to life on Mars
- Extraenviromentalist: Interview on divestment and activism: An interview with Justin and Seth on the Extraenvironmentalist podcast. In the first part of the podcast they speak with Ben Dyson of Positive Money, and I come in during the second part, discussing divestment, carbon markets and many others things
- Skepchick interview: Bitcoin 101: An interview with Kerry Skemp of Skepchick about cryptocurrency, some of the political dynamics, and what you might do with it
- September: Interview with Kati Sipp
- De Groene Amsterdamer, July 2014: Interview with Koen Haegens on the City of London
- Pleasure Saucer Podcast, June 2014: Chatting with Johnny Lemuria
- Cambridge Business Magazine, June 2014: Bitcoin interview
- Spectrum Radio London, Feb 2014: Financial reform
- DeSmog Blog: Taming the wolves of Wall Street
- Imagine Magazine (Belgium): Interview with Amelie Mouton
Articles & Press 2013
- Roar Magazine (Dec 11th): Are we witnessing an open source finance revolution: This is a variation of my original blog post on open source finance, considering how the open source movement and Wikipedia might be an interesting way to visualise a future financial system
- Blue & Green Tomorrow (Dec 9th): Mandela and economic justice: I joined the ranks of people writing tributes to Mandela. In this piece I reflect on a couple of personal experiences I had with him and his family
- Transition Free Press (Dec): Permacultural Finance: Can we apply the principles of permaculture to the financial sector? In this article I explore the dynamics of ecological economics and design. It's on page 15 of the online version
- Guardian Sustainable Business (5th Dec): Institutional amorality in investment: Part 2 of a short series I'm doing on uncovering the layers of unsustainability that are built into pension fund design and culture
- Guardian Sustainable Business (Nov 12th): A hacker approach to rewiring pension funds: Part 1 of a short series I'm doing on uncovering the layers of unsustainability that are built into pension fund design and culture
- Aeon Magazine 28th Aug 2013: So you want to invent your own currency: If you want to know what money is, don’t ask a banker. Take a leap of faith and start your own currency
- Brixton Blog July 2013: Brixton as a financial innovation zone: In this article I discuss four areas of innovation in the Brixton area - community currencies, community shares, financial inclusion and economic regeneration efforts
- CompassOnline June 2013: The City of London: The primary constraint on the UK’s entrepreneurial imagination: "A generation of graduates who can do discounted cash flow valuations or options-pricing is a far-cry from a resourceful nation of inventors and adventurers."
- NLP June 2013: Twilight, Buffy and Blade, and the future of alternative finance: Using vampire films to sketch out a vision for the future of finance. Need I say more. Written for the New Left Project
- World Development Movement June 2013: Cutting through commodities trading jargon: Some linguistic analysis of commodity speculation, written for the campaign group World Development Movement
- Liberal Conspiracy June 2013: Break the black box: "For too long people have viewed the financial system as an obscure black box that we interact with without understanding how it works."
- Economia June 2013: Accountants as anarchists: "It is accountants' duty to stand up to power, rather than facilitate it": My opinion piece for ICAEW's magazine
- Shareaction May 2013: Getting into character for shareholder activism: Five ways to prepare yourself for shareholder activism, written for UK campaign group Shareaction
- MoveYourMoney UK May 2013: A vision for the future: I sketch out a scenario for what would happen if people did actually move their money
- People & Planet May 2013: Making financiers accountable for corporate pollution: Something I wrote for the student environmental campaign group, People & Planet
- Shoreditch Radio (Dec 22nd): 21st Century Permaculture: Chatting with Stefan Geyer about the financial system, economic design, permaculture and a bunch of other things, interspersed with retro funk
- BBC World TV Newsday (Dec 18th): Bitcoin & China: No link available yet. Talking to Kasia Madera in London about China's decision to prevent local banks and payment providers from dealing with bitcoin
- Radio One Dunedin: The Revolution will not be televised: I really enjoyed chatting to activist Olivier Jutel on indy student Radio One in New Zealand. We cover a variety of issues around finance and financial activism
- Resonance FM: Artists in Laboratories: Talking with Regine Debatty from WMMNA about my book, alternative finance and other weirdness. No link available yet, but will post it when it comes
- ODI Lunchtime Lectures: Open Source Finance: 22 minutes of me musing on what an open source financial system would look like, held at the Open Data Institute
- Stir to Action Autumn Issue: Interview on finance activism: Interview in the fantastic Stir to Action mag, alongside articles by Nina Power, David Boyle of the New Economics Foundation, Punkmoney designer Eli Gothill, Fran Boait of Positive Money and philosopher Simon Critchley
- Pod Academy 23rd Sept 2013 Chat with Craig Barfoot: In this podcast, I talk with Craig Barfoot about shareholder activism, socially responsible investment funds, the culture of finance, and the DNA of financial instruments
- BBC World Service Newshour 20th Aug 2013: Germany's decision to tax Bitcoin: I make an appearance at around 32:40 in the audio broadcast, giving my take on Germany's decision to tax Bitcoin transactions
- Deutschlandradio Kultur 18th Aug 2013: Peer-to-peer lending: Short interview about the rise of alternative finance and peer-to-peer lending, starting at around 03:50 in the broadcast
- 3:AM Mag Interview Aug 2013: Chatting to Lewis Basset: An interview with Lewis Basset, set in the empty cellar of a Mayfair pub
- Brixton Pound blog Aug 2013: Meet the Author: A short piece with some suggestions for the future of the Brixton Pound
- ARTE TV July 2013: Yourope programme on P2P finance: I make some appearances talking about P2P lending and sharing economy technologies, coming in around 17:50 in the video, along with some pensive shots of me looking out over the River Thames. It's in French
- BBC World Service World Update: Bitcoin, Wikileaks & Edward Snowden: I talk about bitcoin and whether Edward Snowden could use it. I come in around 31 minutes into the programme
- Summit TV (South Africa), May 2013: Financial reform
- Freedom Press, Dec 2013, Bitcoin interview
Articles & Press 2012 & earlier
ARTICLES
- Guardian Dec 2012: Pension funds & firearm companies: A little piece I wrote about the Newtown Killings and the pressure on the private equity fund Cerberus
- New Internationalist Oct 2012: Financial activism in the UK: An article about financial activists in the UK. Unfortunately not available online, only in print magazine.
- Guardian July 2012: We need a bloodhound fund to sniff out financial skulduggery: A fun piece on activist hedge funds
- This is Africa (Financial Times) July 2012: Getting commodity prices right: A piece a co-wrote with Adam Green for the Financial Time's Africa Magazine on commodity prices and speculation. Needs a subscription to view though.
- Bright Green Scotland June 2012: Securitise the Queen: My proposal for Monarch-Backed Securities, to celebrate the Queen's jubilee
- Naked Capitalism May 2012: Creating a Financial Wikileaks: A piece on creating a financial version of wikileaks
- openDemocracy March 2012: Alternative finance radicals: A piece on mixing the fiery forces of rebellion with the creative forces of entrepreneurs
- Liberal Conspiracy March 2012: Move Your Money: A short piece on the MoveYourMoneyUK campaign
- Guardian Feb 2012: Tales from the City: A piece I wrote for Joris Luyendijk's Guardian Banking Blog
- The Ecologist Feb 2012: Glencore in the DRC: Investigating Glencore's activities in the DRC, and the curious case of Mutanda and Kansuki mines
- Mezimbite Feb 2012: Talking commodity speculation: Responding to a Jeff Frankel piece of commodity speculation for the Mozambique/San-Francisco Mezimbite Mag
- New Internationalist Jan 2012: Has the ANC ushered in neo-apartheid?: A piece for the Agenda section of New Internationalist, looking at the ANC's 100th anniversary
- The Ecologist Dec 2011: A four-step guide to bypassing mainstream banks: Looking at simple ways to use alternative finance
- Guardian Oct 2011: Has the Occupy Movement considered subverting global finance from within?: A piece about Occupy's struggle to grapple with the financial sector
- The Ecologist June 2011: A guide to food speculation: Laying out some of the basics around the food speculation debate
- Liberal Conspiracy May 2011: Pushing for the living wage, shareholder activism style: An article on using shareholder activism for causes
- Live with Max Keiser: The Keiser Report June 2012: Chatting to Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert about financial activism on RT
- Live on Radio Netherlands: Radio Netherlands March 2012 interview: Me chatting about financial anthropology with Jonathan Groubert on Radio Netherlands programme The State We're In
- Guardian Nov 2011 (Interview): Karl Marx as hedge fund manager: Being interviewed by Joris Luyendijk for his Guardian Banking Blog
