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 [...]
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 [...]
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.” [...]