Does this sound familiar? “Economists predict no recovery until 2013.” “Politicians and economists agree on the need for savage cutbacks.” “Economists don’t think people are rational.” (All real news stories.) These and a thousand other news stories reflect the high status economists have in the modern world. There is a Nobel prize for economics but [...]
Two books on my summer reading list are causing my consternation. One is Beinhocker’s ‘Origin of Wealth’; the other is Jackson’s ‘Prosperity without Growth’. In different ways, both play into a current obsession of mine: that economics is a big part of what is stopping transformation in the climate change context. The title of Tim [...]
The British national elections have been top of the local news these past few weeks. I waited and waited, but there was precious little said about climate change. It was there in the party manifestos for the largest parties, and of course the Greens who won their first seat in the national Parliament. But it [...]
Coming on the back of a week when I figured out that if you built an eco-home in Oxfordshire today, it would cost you more than the most ungreen house you could plan, I was not in a happy place.
A while ago I likened tackling climate change to the 1st World War. But an earlier struggle also offers important lessons. I’m talking about the abolition of strategy in the British Empire. Why? Because it is one of those rare moments in history when ethical arguments eventually trumped economic ones. At least that’s the argument [...]
So, the unthinkable happened and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (USA) has a Republican senator. Why is this so monumentous for the rest of the world? Poke a stick into the virtual world and you will find innumerable analyses of what happened – my source of info on Massachusetts (my one time home) is WBUR. But [...]
It’s the festive season and rather than pretend there’s time between parties and pantos to write anything remotely insightful, I thought I’d scribble a few of my favourite blogs and posts this year. In no particular order, they are: Dan Bodansky‘s letter from the Barcelona Climate Change Talks that preceded COP-15. This and blogs such [...]
This month saw the publication of Helm & Hepburn’s book, Economics of Climate Change. It is a fascinating collection of articles on economics and policy with contributors such as Nicholas Stern and Ngaire Woods. (And if you want to see selected chapters, check out the Climates of Change working paper series.) Ever since Nicholas Stern’s [...]
These things we hold to be self-evident: One – We all want renewable energy, and wind farms are a good way of getting it. Two – We all want good quality, affordable food, produced in ways that don’t mess up the environment. Three – We all want to own well-built houses in nice communities, preferably [...]
It’s holiday time so instead of the fortnightly posting, I’m rethinking, revamping and reposting a couple of blogs from earlier in the year. In May, I posted some thoughts about how Charles Darwin’s use of the word economy to mean “the mutually useful and apparently ‘economical’ mechanisms connecting living beings are understood as purposefully designed.” [...]