Economics claims to be a science - yet it fails to engage with the world's only real economic actors - people, not theorems. It's time to rethink economics, write David Boyle and Andrew Simms, and ask the revolutionary question: 'What if ... ?'
… What if ... economics became a science? David Boyle Andrew Simms | 3rd February 2014 Comment Economics Green Economy yam-market-africa.png Economics claims to be a science - yet it …
The EU referendum debate is taking place between different wings of the corporate elite, dominated by assumptions in favour of big business, free trade and endless economic growth, write Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rupert Read & Thomas Wallgren. But to vote for a sustainable future we must adopt a very different, local perspective - one you'll never find in UK's 'mainstream' media.
… Read Thomas Wallgren | 31st May 2016 News EU Economics Sustainability Corporations … between politics at the national level, and economics at the international level. Many … she is the producer of the award-winning The Economics of Happiness and author of Ancient …
The main engine of economic exploitation is the financial system's ever increasing extraction of value through interest payments, according to economist Michael Hudson. Paul Craig Roberts finds his analysis all too accurate, as the over-financialized economies of western countries head down a spiral of poverty, decline, injustice and despair.
… Craig Roberts | 12th February 2016 Reviews Economics Finance Society Books … should have won several Nobel prizes in economics, but he will never get one. Hudson … University of Chicago, which had a leading economics faculty, Hudson studied music and …
Well-being is not just a luxury for good economic times, writes Christine Berry. Reducing poverty and promoting equality are more important economic goals than the pursuit of endless growth.
… Christine Berry | 30th April 2014 Comment Economics Society Green Economy Consumerism … down with it. Essentially, neoclassical economics assumes that individual welfare … damaging to well-being. For example, the New Economics Foundation's analysis of European …
Political support for fracking is not just about energy, writes Paul Mobbs. It reflects the greater ecological and resource crisis at the root of our current economic woes - and only postpones the essential shift to a new kind of economy.
… Paul Mobbs | 5th March 2014 News Fossil Fuels Economics Green Economy Fracking UK Club Of … message regarding the relationship between economics, energy and the environment. That's … carbon issue . In addition to the ecological economics debate , we're now at peak oil too - …
The idea that our profit-oriented, growth-driven economic system can deliver a sustainable society is a beguiling one, write Lili Fuhr, Thomas Fatheuer & Barbara Unmüßig. But it is doomed to failure. The changes we need are in the first place political, and will be driven by a new democratic will to put people and planet before money.
… | 19th July 2016 Comment Green Economy Economics Politics Technology Corporations … Moreover, it reasserts the primacy of economics, thereby failing to recognize the …
Green growth is a myth, writes André Reichel, because it ignores the social, political and personal dimensions of sustainability. Instead we must plan for economic 'de-growth' - and go for growth only in the areas that really matter, like culture, learning and joy.
… | 14th April 2014 Comment Green Economy Economics Society green-growth-nyc.png Green … in Germany. He holds a doctoral degree in economics and social sciences from the …
Orthodox economics and finance have promoted a false account of money, writes Ann Pettifor. Change is necessary and possible. But it will come only through a revolution in the general public's understanding.
… Finance Green Economy money-trp.png Orthodox economics and finance have promoted a false … Some think that this neglect by the economics profession is not accidental. It has … in understanding or taming finance from the economics profession, from regulators or …
'Natural capital' is an understandable attempt to put a value on our living planet and all the services it provides for us, writes John McMurtry. But it fails by measuring nature in dollars and cents. We need to develop a new concept of 'life capital' that must be preserved from exploitation and degradation no matter what the economic cost, because we, and Earth herself, depend upon it.
… end in themselves. So-called 'neo-classical economics' has no life coordinates, while political leaders assume this economics in a world of invisible-hand rule. Even mainstream ecological economics remains confined to raw material …
After two decades of neoliberalism, India's magnates and corporations are profiting as never before, writes Colin Todhunter. But the entire economic edifice is built on the dispossession of the poor, locked into debt servitude, and ever rising income inequality. Prime Minister Modi's latest move, 'demonetization', is yet another example of the state stealing from the poor to give to the obscenely rich.
India's 'economic miracle' is built on debt, dispossession and now, monetary destruction Colin Todhunter | 30th November 2016 Comment India Corporations Finance Farming Politics hunger-cut.jpg After …
The alternatives to neoliberalism - including a new community type of agriculture and community-owned green energy, local currencies, peer-to-peer networks and a sharing economy - are already here and unfolding right now. All we need is a revolution writes NICK MEYNEN
… Meynen | 3rd October 2016 Comment Degrowth Economics Ecologism Neoliberalism Protest … Giorgos Kallis , professor of ecological economics and political ecology adds a few … existing system?" These and other ecological economics professors seem to say that …
A new financial crisis is threatening to dwarf the 'subprime' mortgage debacle, writes Paul Mobbs. Cheap money from central banks has fuelled some $1.3 trillion of risky investments in high-cost 'unconventional' oil and gas. Now, with oil sinking below $60, all that paper is turning to junk - and that's putting the entire economic system at risk.
… 2014 News Finance Oil Gas Fossil Fuels Economics fracking-burns-cut.jpg A new … prices, investors are beginning to review the economics of unconventional oil and gas. For … been a number of damning reports about the economics of unconventional fossil fuels. Now …
Recent falls in oil prices give 'greens' cause to rethink arguments about 'peak oil' and get back to why they are really opposed to fossil fuels, writes Dr Steve Melia. Ultimately, it's not the economic evidence that drives government decisions - it's the politics!
… Peak oil is one of several ways conventional economics have been used to promote … who say they believe in the conventional economics behind cost-benefit analysis pour … misunderstands the role of evidence and economics in political decision-making. …
For decades Israel has been driving Palestinian farmers off their land by imposing restrictions on agriculture, writes JONATHAN COOK. But one company, Canaan Fair Trade, has found an innovative way to resist peacefully, increasing resilience and prosperity in rural West Bank communities, and forging international alliances in the global movement for good food and farming.
Rooted in the soil: the birth of agro-resistance in Palestine Jonathan Cook | 19th August 2016 News Food Farming Middle East Green Economy Seeds Biodiversity Culture picking-olives-cut.jpg For …
Most of Europe is in a state of low economic growth, and it's likely to go on for a long time yet. So let's get good at it, writes Rupert Read, and build 'post-growth' economic systems that work for people and the environment - not just plutocrats.
… the 99% Rupert Read | 16th May 2014 Comment Economics Green Economy Commons … cannot guarantee growth, as even mainstream economics is coming to accept there will never … As Richard Layard 's work and the New Economics Foundation have been so instructive …
With its choice of Hinkley Point C - a £100 billion nuclear boondoggle - its enthusiastic support for expensive and environmentally harmful fracking, and its relentless attack on renewable energy, the UK government's energy policy is both morally and economically bankrupt, write Peter Strachan & Alex Russell. It must urgently reconsider this folly and embrace the renewable energy transition.
Nuclear and fracking: the economic and moral bankruptcy of UK energy policy Peter Strachan Alex Russell | 27th September 2016 News Energy Nuclear Fossil Fuels Fracking UK Politics …
The global economy has already outgrown the Earth, writes Jason Hickel. Yet even the UN insists that we need decades of continued economic growth to end poverty. The truth is the precise reverse: we must end growth - not just to save our planet but to refocus the economy on meeting human needs.
… Jason Hickel LSE | 1st September 2016 Comment Economics Green Economy Un skyscrapers-cut.jpg … Jason Hickel is Lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science. This article …
Britain's deep-seated environmental and economic problems have nothing to do with immigration, writes Adam Ramsay, and everything to do with our unjust and divisive social order, and the austerity that is being inflicted on us by an oppressive ruling class.
… | 21st June 2014 Comment UK Society Politics Economics southall-cut.jpg Britain's … Thatcher said, famously "the method is economics, but the object is to change the …
The 'Global Redesign Initiative', a project of the World Economic Forum, aims to replace UN-based intergovernmental decision-making with unaccountable 'multi-stakeholder governance' run by and for corporations, writes Margi Prideaux. What future for nature and people in this brave new world? Generate profits for investors, or face extinction or exclusion to the margins of existence.
… nature, outsourcing governance: the economics of extinction Margi Prideaux | 7th November 2016 Comment Economics Natural World Conservation Politics … to explore new relationships in international economics unhindered by the democracy and …
A new energy market analysis shows the average cost of electricity from renewables is already lower than from fossil fuels, writes Alex Kirby. And as renewables eat deeper into the 'market share' of coal and gas power plants, so the entire economics of fossil fuel power generation will unravel.
… 15th September 2016 News Energy Fossil Fuels Economics Carbon Tracker wind-cut.jpg A new … of coal and gas power plants, so the entire economics of fossil fuel power generation will … significantly undermine the plants' economics. It says few models so far have …
The IPCC's 'synthesis report' makes a good scientific case on climate change and the need for action, writes Roger Jones. But its economics are weak, especially when it comes to the costs of inaction. And nowhere does it set out the core truth - that the alternative to swift, effective action is to create a hellish, dystopian world for our descendants to endure.
… | 3rd November 2014 Comment Climate Change Economics road-to-hell-cut.jpg The … need for action, writes Roger Jones. But its economics are weak, especially when it comes …
Conventional economic analyses of trade tend only to discern the flows of money, writes NICK MEYNEN. But by also considering biophysical metrics - such as material and energy flows, and embodied water and land - ecological economists can identify the asymmetric flows of resources obscured by the apparent reciprocity of market prices.
… | 23rd November 2016 Comment Ecology Trade Economics Biophysical tokyo skyline.jpg … conflicts in our time. In ecological economics, the environmental justice movement, … outside the field of vision of neoclassical economics. So whenever you want to debate a …
The quiet desperation of declining towns and cities across America's West is understandable, writes George Wuerthner. Of course people dream of the 'good old days' when there were wild prairies to be grazed, forests to be felled and oil wells to be sunk - and try to bring them back. But in so doing they neglect and abuse their real and enduring wealth: nature, landscape and wildlife.
… George Wuerthner | 9th May 2016 Comment USA Economics Ecology Politics Commons The Land … gas drilling, and ranching. However, global economics have taken away most of those jobs. … what they don't understand is that global economics have changed, and even if the …
A study of 245 large dams carried out at Oxford University shows that big hydropower is uneconomic. Actual costs are typically double pre-construction estimates - and have not improved over 70 years. ASEAN energy ministers take note!
… April 2014 News Water Energy Malaysia Asia Economics Renewables bakun-dam.jpg A study of …