Positive Money

Making money and banking work for society

David Barmes

David Barmes

David is carrying out Positive Money’s latest research on Escaping Growth Dependency. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology from McGill University and is currently completing a master’s degree in Socio-Ecological Economics & Policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. His research mostly falls within the field of ecological macroeconomics, where he draws primarily on approaches and insights from Ecological, Post-Keynesian, and Institutionalist Economics. Ultimately, his work is aimed at transforming money and finance for a post-growth economy.



Response to Mark Carney’s Speech at the TCFD Summit

16 October, 2019
Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney spoke at the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Summit in Tokyo. While he continues to recognize the urgency of greening the financial system, the policies he supports won’t get us there. Carney opened with some strong words on the growing and still unaddressed challenge of [...]


Climate ‘risk’ vs ‘uncertainty’ in financial policymaking

2 October, 2019
Current treatment of climate ‘risk’ rests on false assumptions about the dynamics of financial markets and the environmental challenges we face. To address this deficiency, an understanding of ‘radical uncertainty’ must play a greater role in financial policymaking. Due to its mandate to maintain financial stability, the Bank of England now pays increasing attention to [...]


Securitisation is back, and green finance must stray far away

5 September, 2019
Securitisation played a central role in the 2008 crisis. Yet it’s been making a comeback, and green finance is getting involved. Here’s why securitisation should have no place in green finance. What is securitisation? Securitisation is the process of packaging illiquid financial assets together into tradeable financial instruments, known as asset-backed securities (ABS). Various types [...]


A reformed appointment process of the IMF director won’t cut it, the whole institution needs an overhaul

19 August, 2019
The EU’s finance ministers recently voted for Kristalina Georgieva, the Chief Executive of the World Bank, to take on the top job at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Georgieva is almost guaranteed to secure the position, as tradition dictates that Europe chooses the Managing Director of the IMF, while the US selects the World Bank [...]


Reflections on the state of green finance

1 August, 2019
Green finance is growing fast, as private financial services firms are “capturing the opportunity” that going ‘green’ presents. But is this something to celebrate? Not necessarily. Part of the drive to grow green finance has taken the form of broadening the variety of questionable financial instruments on offer. The green synthetic asset-backed security, for example, [...]