Resilient Economy Researchers
MEET THE
TEAM
William thomson
simon ripton
cameron archibald
Ciaran McKenna
William Thomson
William is the founder & curator of Scotland’s Economics Festival. He writes regularly for several publications, including Brave New Europe, the Scottish Left Review, and The National. William has an MSc in Green Economy (Distinction) and an MEcon in the Economics of Sustainability (Distinction). William has over twenty-five years ‘real-world’ experience, having worked in commercial roles in financial and professional services.
Read William’s articles in Bella Caledonia, Brave New Europe, Scottish Left Review, The National.
Listen to William’s podcast appearances on The National, Macro n Cheese, and Funding The Future.
Read William’s research papers on “An independent Scotland adopting the EU’s Fiscal Rules” and “A Scottish Central Bank for an independent Scotland.”
The Sunday Herald profiled William alongside leading heterodox economists. Read the article here.
Simon Ripton
Simon has spent over 30 years in financial services product management, product marketing, and product & proposition development in the wealth, pensions, banking, consumer credit, and financial wellbeing spaces. He’s worked for UK and international banks in Africa and Europe.
Simon holds an MBA with a focus on strategic sustainability and is studying a Masters in the Economics of Sustainability with Modern Money Lab at Torrens University Australia.
Having worked inside the financial industry, he understands how money actually moves through the system and how poorly it’s understood, even by those working on the inside. Simon was elected to local government in 2023 and is a passionate advocate of accountable, local democracy that serves communities and connects citizens to the leaders they elect.
Read Simon in The Guardian.
Cameron Archibald
Cameron is a Public Policy Economist and a qualified Humanities Teacher. He has a BA Honours in History & Politics, a Masters degree in Public Policy, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the universities of Stirling and Glasgow. He has previously written political and economic analysis for media platforms such as The National, Bylines Scotland, and Bella Caledonia. Cameron currently sits on the Bank of England’s Citizen’s Panel, has experience in financial administration for multinational corporations, whilst contributing to research and policy development on a Job Guarantee in Scotland.
Read Cameron’s articles on Bella Caledonia, Bylines Scotland, and The National.
Listen to Cameron’s podcast appearance on the MMT podcast and the Party Political Podcast.
Read Cameron’s research papers “Scotland’s Job Guarantee: An Employer of Last Resort” and “How would an independent Scotland best utilise a Job Guarantee and Universal Basic Income?”
Ciaran McKenna
Ciaran McKenna holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Duke University, and recently graduated with a Master’s in Economics of Sustainability from Torrens University in Adelaide, Australia. Following a career in professional football in Scotland, Ciaran previously coordinated with Scotonomics on policy work, playing a key role in publishing a sectoral balance analysis of Scotland. Ciaran is also a co-founder and board member of Modern Money Lab Europe, a heterodox economics education organisation, advocating for real world economics for a more progressive Europe.
Read Ciaran’s articles in The National, and Bylines Scotland.
While living in Switzerland, Ciaran also collaborated with a coalition of civil organisations advocating for the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to align their investment policy with their own ethical and environmental guidelines. Read Ciaran’s case studies calling for SNB divestment from Exxon Mobil and Palantir.
A resilient care system for a resilient economy?
I can think of few problems as important and urgent as how we provide care for adults who are unable to care for themselves through
‘Rewiring the State’ is a missed opportunity to focus on economic resilience.
Rewiring the State is underpinned by the desire to allow central and local governments to remain within self-imposed, entirely unscientific, and hugely damaging fiscal rules.
The UK government’s Pensions Commission threatens UK private sector resilience.
If the government’s Pensions Commission applied the macroeconomics of a modern money economy, they’d have written a very different report…and pensioners and the planet would