Economist and columnist with Tribune Magazine, Grace Blakeley, delivers her keynote speech on the Cost of Greed crisis at The Left Bank Summer School 2023. socialdemocrats.ie
I watched the entire thing. I just think she's not saying anything new. It's interesting but I've been listening to these arguments for a decade or more and with arguably more credible speakers. It's great that she is on mainstream media arguing these points though, fair play. Grace makes her arguments well, but I think there are others that have made them better. Really recommend Mark Blyth for example, Clara Mattei another. Not really a competition though, as long as the points are made.
@@Salon-no-mind so if someone goes to private school then Oxbridge that somehow instantly excludes them from being critical of the current state of capitalism? To be honest if we are going to have to wait for a state school kid (preferably someone who left education after the age of 16) to offer up an alternative we really are in for a long wait !
Today is the first time I've heard Grace Blakeley..... I'm quite impressed! She is so on target with what is really going on in the world since Thatcher and Regan baptized the dawn of capital greed at any cost to humankind. I'll be following and spreading her words wherever I think will do the most good. Brava!
it is sad that rich privileged people who aspire to be red fascists who have no clue what they are talking about try to buy votes by telling us "they are stealing from you vote for me so i can return your money" ... seen this story so many times before it is sad and boring
Dangling the ability to own some cheap Crap seems to be the promotion of Greed? The ability to become one of the Manipulators is the goal of Capitalism. How is that working so far?
All the people on the planet keep risking their lives to come and live in free market economies. Every economy that has to bring in price controls collapses. I feel like these idiots don't look at the whole world, and yet they keep coming to the same idiot conclusions.
The moment Paul Krugman, whom I view as an unreconstructed apologist for Wall Street, chimes in you know you've struck a nerve. A _real_ economic thinker and historian, Michael Hudson, has discredited poor Krugman. Moving on. Hudson agrees that the inflationary factor is the corporate greed of monopolies; they raise prices of basic necessities because, well, they _can_ . That's what oligarchs do in a monopoly situation... Sheer economic _terrorism_ , if you ask me. Be well.
But the issue is why they can raise prices. In the US, the answer appears to be excessive costs of regulation and insuring against lawsuits. I heard a CEO one time speaking candidly about the need to build a big war chest while growing a company because it’s necessary once you are perceived as a threat to the entrenched players. As a libertarian leaning moderate, I see this cry for price controls as statists whining about getting what statists created. The whole Left v Right paradigm is all a con game as the big corporations and both parties keep giving us more government and more phony free markets.
I’ve been noticing that massive effort and expense is incurred to make sure private interests can do anything they want with their wealth. We cannot value things as a community or a democracy, even employment, food and housing. We have to incentivize and de-risk projects necessary for human survival. They won’t save humanity if it isn’t profitable. Collective action such as strikes are often restricted, but collective action of capital such as a recession is never questioned. When the rate of inflation exceeds the rate of growth, we have to bribe people with high interest payments to withdraw their money. To save the capitalist system from itself, we have to pay extra money risk free from the public budget to the wealthiest. In such a world, money always wins.
"It is very important that we reframe the way this crisis is described: away from being "a cost of living crisis" towards what it actually is: an inequality crisis." Gary Stevenson, wealth economist
I completely agree with everything grace said. And I've listened to several socialists speak but I've yet to hear anyone say how to force the capitalistic system to change to a socialist one.
Grace and Yanis, Grace and Yanis... For Prime Minister of the UK and President of a new EU, respectively! I admire people who can elucidate ideas in plain, simple, straightforward terms. Thank you very much indeed.
Teachers are essential for our knowledge to develop an understanding of how we are manipulated. Great Teachers simply point out our stupidity and ask us if we enjoy the ignorance? Public Servants are an entirely different breed. But it does seem like a lovely thought?
Grace you are spot on. To implement an alternative political-economic system would require global cooperation. However, I would suggest this would challenge the convention of how human societies have functioned for millennia. Humans need to evolve or at least learn to control greed. Challenging conventions frightens people. It means change. Despite the fact change is a constant most people have an aversion to change. The reason is change is usually imposed. Personally, I think if humanity is to survive then human greed must be overcome.
Always impressive to see how a Socialist like Grace explains how bad Capitalism is to an audience not necessarily familiar with anti-capitalist theory and material inequality brought about by who we allow to own the means of production.
No one has mentioned, that money is like a wheel that goes around. The faster it goes around, the better it is for everyone. Compan😊ies or corporations have the biggest share, so they benefit the most. Being responsible is a cost that's part of it. What I'm saying is, when incentive sways business to care they will.
@@ianclark9198 she claims business price gouging when thousands of franchise & independant owners going bankrupt Big difference to revenue and net profit. The government crooks in my country luxuries tax to hell luxury performance cars " alchoal & ciggretes. 2015 BMW m3 in my born country $55000aud in Australia $75000aud fk the tax system the socalist leader cunt got pay rise of $586000 a year who wrecking Australia 16 months
Very nice and simple overview, thank you! It is rare to find so much information coherently and simply presented as here. I am sure it will help many to figure out effect of political/ economy cogs and wheels in motion.
The cost of living crisis is caused almost entirely by currency debasement. If a country dilutes the currency by a percentage, then that currency loses purchasing power by that same percentage. 30% of all the money that has ever existed in the U.K. was printed since 2020. This is overwhelmingly the reason for the cost of living crisis. If a country prints money and economic output doesn’t increase to meet the rate of printing then the value of the currency is debased…it really is as simple as that.
Thanks to RU-vid Algorithm to introduce GRACE BLAKELEY❤️, will definitely grab her latest book VULTURE CAPITALISM👍, do agree with her on “ How capitalism enslaved us all”
We live in a system where people are kept in a state of constant anxiety, and greed is a by product of this. Finance, money is the greatest weapon of control and coercion ever invented and is far more effective than the masters whip. So we don't have a crisis of greed but a system operating within its normal parameters that one could describe using the greed narrative, or a particular side of the greed narrative. Though the greed narrative is thoroughly unsatisfactory. The West's demented thirst for total global hegemony doesn't help either, making competition and mistrust the primary values of the world market, with all the cost implications that involves. At the imperialist level Western ' democracies' are every bit as Bonapartist as the peripheral nations, and this is why talk of worker is too generic in the context of a world market, and leads to many erroneous conclusions.
Economics of scarcity. Cheaper then consumerism. The dole is cheaper then having full employment, industrial policies. ...when one can control the money supply and money flows. Good job Grace, you are stooping to the public who deserves a more stable, better quality of life, not necessary more spending "power", this being very waste-ful. Stuff the "papers".
Nixon ran price controls too...instead these days where wage inflation is only mentioned...LoL.. minimum wage existence is an existential crisis for Republicans these days.
Intelligent & articulate she is - but merely paying attention will get you to her position. She had the advantage of meeting the "People Like Us" clique. I probably got onset dementia & I can see what's going on. While the poor slops are slaving & saving to buy just a home, they are making a loss to inflation, while their money is lent to prospective landlords cheaply. They are literally forced to subsidise those in a position to borrow, including would be landlords. The more money available to borrow, cheaply pushes housing prices up. In Australia the "Left Wing Biased ABC" refused to acknowledge Public Housing as a historically successful solution to keep housing prices affordable for everyone. They also never mentioned the casualisation of labor, the state intervention to keep wages low & how there can never be a BUSINESS MODEL to allow ANYONE with suppressed wages to afford a home.
We are divided and then ruled. This woman speaks the truth but will almost certainly be ineffective. If she by chance does gain traction she will bought or silenced [in any number of ways]. Only when public pain is enough will there be any effective consensus amongst those fiscally abused. Regretfully, this will require revolution.
Do we the working class really need to wait until the eventuality of a violent rebellion. That is what these things bring about. The American working class, current,future,and retired are 98 plus percent of the population, and same same 98 plus percent of all eligible voters. Wow, with that knowledge one would think the working class would drop the BS, come together, and vote every corporate politician out of our governments at all levels in their own best interest towards a future of Peace and Tranquility in their daily lives. Everything dividing te working class is a wealthy oligarchy manufatured attempt to divide, conquer, and subjugate them. The idiocy of the whole thing is astonishingly.
That's actually the failed Marxist prophecy, that a revolution would automatically happen because it would be so obvious how capital subjugated workers and people's. It's false. We can be subjugated into the dirt and beyond and it could always get much worse. This is why you are supposed to take an active and daily role in resistance, your own life is supposed to be a revolution, and most of us are very far from that, ceding to capital in most of our actions everyday. But even so, vocalizing resistance, theory, strategy, whatever the case, it's not nothing. They don't have to do anything to actively silence her in our current environment, they simply don't promote her on their platforms in the first place. Resign yourself to resignation, our resistance will simply be bought and paid if it ever got far enough. Only a majority mass of beneficent elites would ever allow a revolution to happen for their own sake. What Marx was missing in his theory was that revolution would never happen and things would become more hopeless than he ever imagined.
tell me? where does Grace live? does she live in socialist nation? of course not. LOL. cowards dont live with their own failed ideas, they just preach them.
The problems start and end with the No's of people living in towns and cities that are simply unable to support themselves without their artificially constructed jobs
even in technology, Jaron Lanier's book "Who Owns the FUture?" points out that all benefits tend to accrue to the "top level server" (e.g. Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.)
"Inflation" is the short form of "inflation of the money supply". The government can print money or banks can operate on a fractional-reserve lending system. It does not happen through either corporate pricing strategies or workers pushing for higher wages... unless those workers are paid by the government and the government "borrows" money to pay for their wages, as per the 1970's in the UK. Its pretty easy to look back and see the spike in "quantitative easing" (government printing money - inflation) and the ensuing rise in prices which causes the cost of living problem. It is very basic economics. The mechanism the government used to pay for / mitigate their disastrous covid policies (or indeed, running any deficit) is the same as currency counterfeiters use: "print more just for me so I can spend it on what I want." We should disallow it for the same reason as we prosecute counterfeiters - debasing the currency is the counterfeiter stealing value from your money, which is a store of the value of the work you have done. Fixing this requires reducing government activity. It probably also requires limiting foreign investment and borrowing capabilities. Controlling prices is not the way. Lower prices, lower supply. You also create coarse-grained legal categories which prevent innovation at the edges. If you limit the price of food, you're going to kill the organic food industry. We should be aiming for competitive markets.
The Fed and every single bank on the block has been _licensed_ to offer "credit," another name for legal counterfeiting. Every time anyone in the US borrows money from a bank, the bank creates it out of thin air... Be well.
F.Scott Becks’s book People of the Lie explains corporate motivation as simply to increase share values. No one takes responsibility for the lies. We’re living in a lie and greed is both the cause and the result
The rich must never suffer. In fact, they must never stop getting richer every second. All burdens and consequences must be borne by the working class.
To be sure, yes, there is among many business executives a commitment to profit maximizing; or, more specifically, stock price maximizing that results in their skyrocketed compensation. A major cause of all of this is the deregulation of the financial services sector of the global economy as well as systems of taxation that reward what economists refer to as "rent-seeking" over the production of goods or needed services. The solution is straightforward: tax rent-derived income and gains on the sale of assets. Unfortunately, those who get elected to public office have no real appetite for taking on the rentier elite. The direct taxation of rents has proven to be quite difficult politically. A less direct approach would be to lobby for an individual income tax that combines simplification with progressivity. What might this look like? Exempt all individual income up to the national median. Eliminate all other exemptions and deductions. All income regardless of source would then be subjected to increasing rates of taxation on higher ranges of income. This would satisfy the "ability to pay" standard as well as capture much of the unearned income that now escapes taxation.
All the things she talked about is happening in the United States too. Our housing is also being bought out by investment firms, along with our healthcare and other areas. How do we fight this if it’s happening on a global scale.
marketing is so good they know how to manipulate the consumer to spend money they don't have and the consumer is mindless. My neighbor throws out more food then she consumes----absolutely unforgivable
Also, being that greed is driving price inflation, that means more profits going to the top where they will go straight into assets and asset inflation, which will drive further increases in rents and house prices making the inflation double
Inflation means less product in the market compared to demand, so by controlling very few i.e the richest you cannot increase availability of the products in short-term, but by forcing majority to use products wisely could make difference. Also water stays on top of mountain and roll down all the way into sea with ups and downs in term of amount.
What do they teach at the Harvard Business School? Pay the average worker just enough to keep them from having to live on the streets but never enough that they can improve their lot and horror of horrors find a higher paying job. That is the reason workers never have enough. Meanwhile the "free market" is a cover for what is actually monopoly captitalism, crony captilalism and so on and so forth. To put it another way. Sh...t never slides up. It always slides down. You are either on the giving end or the receiving.
Hi its Heman thanks for your analysis most interesting relevant and timely. As an Appiled Economist not educated at Oxbrodge correct me if wrong you may have either overlooked or forgot to mention ad part of your economic analysis that much of neoliberal economic ideas is shaped by neoclassical promarket economic theory which even thos recognises ad part of its pedagogy that excess abnormal or supernormal profits is a problem that will need tackling by reducing MR or marginal revenue companies make to bring into equilibrium with their Marginal Cost and assure effective free market operation. This needed expressing in more lay speak which I feel would have helped your argument and debate with establishment economists and their pro establishment political masters. Your reply would be welcome. Thanks
I've known this for years. Cartel behaviour is rife in business. The only time prices come down is to drive a a market entrant back out to oblivion and then prices go up again. It has happened to small airlines in New Zealand to give but one example. And of course the welathy own the shares in these corporations and that includes lawmakers who legislate to their personal advantage. "democracy" permits this behaviour. I could say an awful lot about the banking sector and the ridiculous practice of raising interest rates to bring inflation down; not only is that an impost on those who do not borrow money but economists conveniently leave the cost of borrowing out of inflation figures because raising interest rates is in itself inflationary and guess what what kind of a spiral would be revealed if interest rates were included in those figures. It also provides and explanation why economist's predictions are invariably wrong: they are operating on faulty and incomplete data. The nett result of all this perfidy could be summed up as "prices are driven up to the point where a certain proportion of people simply cannot pay more". The whole economic machinery is designed to ensure a flow of capital from the poor to the rich. A key principle behind the privatization of taxpayer paid for public "assets" in New Zealand such as the power generation network was to both boost the wealth of those who held the purse strings (movers and shakers, rich businessmen who were handed the management reins) and at the same time make the changes as difficult as possible to reverse in the future. A sort of coup d'etat which the public have been paying ever increasing amounts for ever since. Both a tragedy and a travesty. On housing - the most disingenuous argument raised by multiple property owners/landlords is that if anything causes them to divest themselves of their properties "there will be a shortage of rental accommodation." True of course but it also means that more houses will be available for people to buy to have a stable home of their own and not be funnellling the products of their labour straight into the pockets of landlords. It is interesting also that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand doesn't take increases into house prices into their inflation equations either. I wonder why?
Does anyone know of a credible author who’s written a book(s), current(?), on the topic of “corporations purposefully constricting supply” (for obvious reasons, aka market monopoly or profit gains)?
The main cause of inflation is an increase in the supply of money. The main cause of inequality is the cantillon privilege of large corpos and the wealthy having first dibs on new money BEFORE inflation has taken a chunk out of it, then weaponising that new money against the poor who don't have the same privilege. Bitcoin largely fixes this as the wealthy no longer receive new money cheaper and before everyone else.
There's so many formulaic methods of explaining the works and means of capitalism and financial interplay that it all becomes gobbledygook to the average person and that's probably what it's intended to do The reality of the situation is the endemic corruption of the human being and the failure of the political system to realise that it's function is to work for the people leads to the need to obfuscate it's actual machinations behind a cloak of secrecy and sleight of hand Governments have sold us so absolutely into the hands of the most powerful that without total revolution, we can never get out. For instance, the institutions that lend money to governments are the same institutions that benefit from the crime of hoarding the nation's capital by unfair tax breaks. Ideas such as reducing capital gains tax and introducing " free ports" are the actions of desperate government racing other desperate governments to the bottom. We have seen the failure of governments to control the power of the oil companies in that price's rocket on pallid excuses and our power goes with it upwards but not down again. The same will happen with " renewable energy," having purloined or sold the family silver, governments beg private enterprise to help solve their problems and promise the world, our world, for the assistance of other nations or corporations. We, the people, end up as the economic prisoners of the most powerful and governments wring their hands and count their " bungs," whilst we suffer for their despotism
If only people were educated to understand how banking (not building societies) actually works and that the financial crisis was not the loss of people’s money- that was a total lie. But the financial crisis was really the banks spent all their money NOT the clients money and therefore the banks could not pay the wages of the staff that would normally be the administrators of allowing people access to their own money. Imagine an auction store where some of the products are made up (loans- Yep are actually made up !) and yet the owner of the business spent all of the money on a fancy car that blew up the moment the key was turned. The clients can see their items through the windows they just can’t get to them cos there are no staff. So yes it’s complex but it is possible to get all the goods back to their owners and even have some people let off their liabilities- the balance sheet is the banks balance sheet and they made up the loans anyway. Notice in all the events no one had their Loans written off but you could have your savings written off.
She mentioned ''War in Ukraine'' multiple times as a driver of cost but you also should mention the economic war against Russia that cuts both ways. The West might can start an economic war against Iran while only taking minimal economic damages but Russia is a whole different heavy weight as the country is home to about 1/4 of the Earth's Resources in value and there was alot of trade and investment. Just one thing, Europe now pays hefty prices for fuels and energy, this dragged down millions into poverty. One can also mention the sabotage of the Nordstream Pipelines, which additionally made Germany and Russia poorer. Germany is the biggest trading partner for many countries in Europe, obviously there will be effects felt in other EU countries and also in UK, Switzerland & Norway. There is so many other things aswell but i'll keep it short.
I love this! I just read something by Jennifer Hinton about the transformative power of Non Profits actually competing in the marked place. A growing ecosystem of cooperative non for profit business could render the for profit sector obsolete. I would have loved to be there to ask Grace about this idea, I was hoping that she would mention the non for profit sector (not the part that depends on charity therefore it ends up un greenwashing but the competitive side of it like IKEA for example)
@@sisterg733 no come back huh? LOL. arguing for socialism via truth and facts is impossible dude. Capitalism wins every time. the world is a much better place because of the rise of capitalism and the down fall of socialism. nice try though.
Just pay harder or o, greedy will REALLY depression you untill you die slowly. It's rediculous for free pollution profits gouging and scooping out greedy glomb.
Concentrated wealth is a more apt term than "big corporations", but I truly appreciate the awareness building on this root cause problem in achieving egalitarianism and basic quality of life.
You need to build on and scale up the ideas añd practices of consumer and producer cooperatives and scale up operations of organisations like John Lewis Partnership. Heman
Seems she is neglecting a major factor in causing inflation, namely money 'printing' ( QE) by the Central banks working in conjunction with the large commercial banks.
RE: 57:00 when Grace talks about whether we need the layer of capitalist ownership workers who get everything done.... I'm just trying to grapple with this not make a statement.... I guess the problem I see with this is stuff that would never get done because of not having an accumulation of capital to initiate. That seems like the sort of unique thing that capital provides. But then if there were actually capital markets but they were just publicly run, then one could imagine workers co-ops applying for capital from the public capital markets. I don't know it doesn't seem like a full replacement. I'm thinking of some projects like maybe computer chips or things that are really complicated where you might have small groups of people that are invested in it for a long time before the operation becomes, well operable to the point where it's actually involving a workforce. So in those cases does private capital provide something unique and intrinsically necessary to that sort of innovation? Open to suggestions....
I have not got to that part of the video yet, but actually i am in that situation my self. Ive got a small tech start up that has taken a few years to build the software. Uts taken years because my partner and i have done 99% of it. Ive allways said give me a measley 200k and id have it up and runing in months with a small workforce. So in my experuence stuff still happens, just A LOT slower! However, the concepts is my baby which i believe in. If the goal was simply wealth accumilation maybe/prob i would not bother.
@@adambrickley1119 I did web programming for a bit. Made a few retail websites but I was more interested in database implementations and writing interfaces out of javascript. Got out and went into another field because the environment seemed to be changing under my feet. How can you take years to do a tech startup and have it still be relevant? Good for you bro. No better way to shove it to the proverbial man, to the pressures of conformity and racing around to buy stuff we don't need than to take the time to do it your own way.
A very big challenge indeed, America had it started yet failed to adhere to their own plan. Their method was the only plan that would allow people to be free of both banking greed and corporate greed by a democratic process. Sadly america still has the wool over its eyes about this. Long story short, Socialism is not the answer to the problem,Communism is not the answer to the problem, monarchy is not the answer to the problem, dictatorship is not the answer to the problem, markets are not the answer to the problem, Anarchy is not the answer to the problem. America's republic with its Declaration of Independence and its Constituion are the answer to the problem, (yes its true) if it is adhered to as was it was intended ,discussed, and voted on by the people through their representatives to be done. Yet it is not done. Failure to follow through leads to banks and corporations and the 1% having the real sovereignty not just in america, but for the whole world. Study,research, do your homework, think for yourself, And when your really ready to effect some changes in the direction of improving the human experience, then help america get back on track. America is the only dog the world had in this fight for freedom. And still is , once they find their way back to the path of freedom. The mechanisms are already in place if they would just be exercised.
Price stability when there's more money entering the market, how? Democratise the central bank, spread the profits to everybody and then what is the point of profit if the profits come back to everybody? How do we change from a debt based society where value is based on the same amount of energy being used during the term of the loan? How do we change from the debt based system where banks make 100% on the loan and govts take 50% of our working lives in taxes and fees and yet we don't have anything of value to depend on when getting old because of central banks and govts choices where money goes, into more jobs and more consumption?
If markets where managed differently; had different rules. Then an overflow of investment would either not be allowed or not have the same effect. Share the profit? Yes, some to people, some to infrastructure, some to health, some to education and so on. You do know that a lot of services are close to collapse due to lack of investment? Change how money is created? Because we find it difficult to imagine it does not mean we should give up. There ARE SOLUTIONS OUT THERE.
Lovely to hear a young voice expressing the ideals I have quandered for many's the year now !! Problem is that Grace is sadly talking to an Irish audience about a UK problem ??
It's a good thing then, the Irish love to hear about UK having problems, there's a certain relish in that. However, these problems are much broader than those economies or region, this is a global problem. The capital-is-greed-is-good at the expense of everything and everyone else is a problem for pretty much every country, advanced or developing. UK might be struggling where as Ireland appears to be doing quite well in paper, but how much of Irish gdp is foreign owned? There are no sides to this coin, it's simply the same coin. Anyone not an oligarchy, everywhere, can be unified in these sorts of messages.
We have done Grace , but you are talking to a post austerity audience who abolished 0 hr contracts 8 years ago & spent a ton of cash on education whilst also engaging austere measures !!
If you are interested in the scourge of capitalism, or have never questioned it, you will enjoy the presentation “Crisis and Openings: Introduction to Marxism” by Richard D Wolff, an Emeritus Professor of Economics (Yale, Harvard etc). Don’t be put off by the word “Marxism” (especially if you are an American) because you are frightened by it. I am not suggesting the fascism and totalitarianism that you might imagine. The presentation explains how capitalism works. People need to realise there is an alternative and, no, it is not the USSR. It is enterprises like “Mondragon” where the people who make the money get to keep more of it than they would under capitalism.
Yes. Greedy workers. That's why real wages have been flat since the 1970s... The greatest hidden inflation is rents and mortgages raised by currency devaluation created by no strings bailouts that go to the rich
I should go through the whole speech, before to comment properly, but I am worried that the title may suggest that could be a difference between responsible capitalism and 'greedy' or financial or speculative capitalism. This would not be the best way to understand capitalism and modernity.
Grace is a Marxist so no, that is not the point of the talk. The title just seeks to point the finger at those responsible for the crisis. Calling it the cost of living crisis just makes it seem like it is coming from the sky gods and there is nothing we can do. But pointing the finger at greedy capitalists is putting the blame where it should go, at real physical people we can question and fight against.
What is responsible capitalism? Capitalism is the means of production are in private hands, not the govts, and this means the consumer can consume as much as they can afford, freely because it's a free market. Does the greed not reside with the one consuming?
@@antonyjh1234there is a difference between need and greed. On the whole as far as capitalism is concerned a corporations approach is more closely aligned with greed, and a consumers approach is more closely aligned with need. I don’t think it’s so easy to say that all corporations are greedy but like wise it’s not so easy to say every consumer is greedy.
If we were talking need vs greed would we need most of what is produced? How many of us have more than we need? The only thing about corporations/businesses is that they are designed for profit regardless of need, as soon as the satisfaction of needs disappears then are we already in a territory of greed and that there are more consumers than producers.@@VVattonEarth
Generation Z is the smallest generation EVER in history. We are entering a 15+ year shortage of workers. Corporations are going to be desperate to attract and retain enough workers to maintain operations. AND, we have a consumer based economy, which is a problem if you have fewer consumers.
I wish questions would be taken one at a time. Grace is answering them properly but often it is a way of letting speakers avoid issues and it makes it far harder for the audience to follow.
