Italy's Mazzuccato on Corbyn's economic panel

(ANSA) - London, September 29 - The Financial Times opened slightly to the economic policies of new radical Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday, a day after shadow chancellor John McDonnell announced a team of seven internationally renowned economists to develop policy ideas for the party. The panel includes Italy's Mariana Mazzuccato, author of The Entrepreneurial State and a former adviser to ex Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. Other members are David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, Anastasia Nesvetailova of City University, Ann Pettifor, former adviser to Ken Livingstone in the 1980s, anti-austerity campaigner Thomas Piketty, winner of the 2001 economics Nobel prize Joseph Stiglitz and Oxford University professor Simon Wren-Lewis.
    The FT pointed out that the group "is largely made up of leftwing academics, who have opposed (Conservative Chancellor) George Osborne's deficit reduction programme since its inception and made the case for more redistributive policies".
    However, the paper also acknowledged that 'Corbynomics' - as the new Labour leader's economic policies are known - are increasingly being debated beyond radical circles as bankers and business economists prepare to face a possible new recession in Britain. These include 'people's quantitative easing' that would see the Bank of England fund a national investment bank to boost capital spending in the UK.