In the latest episode of The Break–Down, host Adrienne Buller is joined by renowned economist Ann Pettifor to discuss her new book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and Planet.

We’ve all heard the refrain. Whenever a politician proposes a policy that might genuinely improve people’s lives — free and fast buses, affordable housing, large-scale renewable energy — the response is immediate: we can’t afford it. Media pundits and technocrats fixate on national debt, balanced budgets and the need not to “spook” the ever-mysterious bond vigilantes.

This obsession doesn’t just dominate public debate — it paralyses action on the very challenges we urgently need to confront, from transforming our energy system to properly funding care for the most vulnerable.

As this episode makes clear, it’s also profoundly misleading.

The Global Casino traces the extraordinary power of Wall Street, revisits Keynes’s legacy, and asks a fundamental question: what is money, really? For Ann Pettifor, money is an extraordinary human invention — one that could be used to reshape our world for the better, rather than to enrich a powerful few.

In today’s episode, she explains how — and why it matters now more than ever.