Mariana Mazzucato on pre-distribution, COP27, REPower EU, and more

Mazzucato reminds us that private green investment can be fickle, proposes policy interventions focused on “pre-distribution,” and more. The PS Say More Newsletter | [View this message in a web browser]( [PS Say More]( This week in Say More, PS talks with Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, and the author of [Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism](. To read the full interview – in which Mazzucato reminds us that private green investment can be fickle, calls for more direct public financing of climate action, proposes policy interventions focused on “pre-distribution,” and more – [click here](. Mariana Mazzucato Says More... Syndicate: In June 2020, you and [Robert Skidelsky]( [lamented]( that, despite the deployment of massive amounts of emergency financing during the pandemic, there was “little evidence” of any new fiscal thinking, as the spending was not “structured.” Does recent spending legislation in the United States, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, reflect progress in “rethinking the role and purpose of fiscal policy”? Mariana Mazzucato: According to RMI Analytics, US President Joe Biden’s three big laws – the two you mention, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – will [more than triple]( the federal government’s average annual spending on climate and clean energy this decade, compared to the 2010s. They thus represent a critical opportunity to promote a just green transformation. But such forecasts rest on the assumption that green investment trends remain on their current trajectory. And as the recent surge in coal and natural-gas investments – a response to the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine – shows... [Continue reading]( Sponsored [1440: News without motives]( Every morning, 1440 scours over 100 sources and compiles all of the most important stories on culture, science, sports, politics, business, and everything in between. The result is a nifty little newsletter that takes only five minutes to read. It is the fastest way to an informed and impartial point of view. [Sign up for 1440]( and read your first newsletter now. [Sign up for 1440 now and get your first five-minute read this minute]( By the Way... PS: Discussions of inequality – one of the key challenges you highlight in your book, [Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism]( – tend to focus on redistribution, especially through taxation. But you argue that, rather than merely attempting to mitigate inequality, we should be preventing it. What are the pillars of such a “pre-distribution approach”? Which interventions to improve value distribution ex ante would be the easiest to implement in, say, the US? MM: Both redistribution and pre-distribution are necessary to achieve fair outcomes. But whereas the former focuses on cleaning up a mess, the latter aims to prevent the mess from being made at all, by getting the conditions for fairness right. To understand how to transform wealth distribution fundamentally, we must first examine [where value comes from](. If it is created through collective efforts... [Continue reading]( [PS Say More: Mark Leonard on the Russia sanctions, European security, China’s view of the Ukraine war, and more]( [Mark Leonard on the Russia sanctions, European security, China’s view of the Ukraine war, and more]( In April, Mark Leonard warned that the sanctions against Russia could hasten the demise of the Western-led international order, touted Europe’s geopolitical awakening, considered how the Ukraine war might reshape the Indo-Pacific, and more. Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of [The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict](. [Read the interview]( [Subscribe now to save $25 on a PS Digital subscription]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. Receipt of this newsletter does not guarantee rights to re-publish any of its content. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.