Occupy popped up in London at St Paul’s on 15 October 2011. Ian Harris and I had just released our book, The Price of Fish: A New Approach To Wicked Economics & Better Decisions, trying to ask uncomfortable, impertinent questions in search of pertinent and permanent answers to fundamental questions in commerce, economics, and finance. We felt that the Occupy London protesters cared deeply about similar issues and were, in their own way, insisting rigorously on debating them.
We wrote an open letter to the Occupy London Protesters and received a response asking us if we would like to address “Occupy University”, aka Tent City University, on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 at 11:00. Occupy University was a debating tent set up outside St Paul’s in the centre of the encampment. Inside the tent were some sofas, low-lying bean bags, and thick rugs, though a month without cleaning had left things a bit soiled and shabby. We went with some trepidation, bearing gifts of books and chocolate coins and a letter to prospective readers. Ian had decided I could do the address while he provided moral support. Not many besuited folk had ventured into the camp, not even people from the “open-minded and free-thinking yet besuited” community.
We had a good turnout of around twenty people. I spoke for about 30 minutes on the fundamental themes of the book. It wasn’t hard as we had held a book launch at Gresham College the week before – https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/price-fish-making-sense-way-world-really-works – and compressed the formal part into 30 minutes. Aside from two people rolling round the rug under the influence of some chemical or other, the audience were very polite and attentive. The questions were pertinent, particularly on the question of “what really is money?” In fact, I would contend that we had a better debate on topics such as inequality of pay, unjust levels of interest charges, and unsustainable over-exploitation of natural resources than we normally had in the financial community.
As we left, I turned to Ian and said, “I actually got a lot out of that”. Ian replied, “I think I got more than you. I think I’ve got fleas.”
As covered by MSNBC – “High Finance Comes Bearing Gifts For Occupy London“.
