The bonuses paid to executives following the financial
bailout created public outrage at a system that rewards failure and greed. But were
the CEOs and top executives of the big banks and investment firms
really to blame for the financial crisis? By Michael Sandel.
For decades economists have rejected James Tobin's proposal to protect national economies from speculators by taxing foreign currency transactions. Yet the global financial crisis has generated new support amongst policy makers for Tobin's transaction tax brainchild, says Larry Elliott.
Whilst mainstream economists argue that continued economic growth is the solution to underdevelopment and inequality, Herman Daley's thinking on steady-state economics and sustainability exposes the environmental risks of treating growth
as a panacea. By Robert Goodland.
9 August 2007 will be remembered as 'debtonation
day' - the day when the world's vastly
extended bubble of deregulated credit burst. This date marks the
beginning of the end of the deregulation and privatisation
of finance that characterises the era of globalisation, says Ann Pettifor.
Rapid economic growth, the essence of modern consumer society, is placing an increasing strain on the world's limited resources. 'De-growth' societies based on lower rates of consumption and waste production are a more ecologically sustainable alternative, argues Serge Latouche.
Three notable heterodox thinkers - Tim Jackson, Herman Daly
and Joseph Stiglitz - discuss the shortcomings of contemporary economics,
consider ways to stand up to the economics establishment, and ask the question:
at what point does economic growth become uneconomic growth? By Adbusters.
Whereas colonialism was previously enforced using gunships, the World Bank and IMF now impose policy prescriptions on developing countries in a bid to open their markets to the interests of foreign corporations. This is simply a modern, economic form of colonial exploitation argues Douglas Rushkoff.
The severity of the global financial crisis is evidence of the urgent need to reform
economic theory and education. But though the
“irresistible force” of the crisis is immense,
so is the inertia of accepted economic ideas, argues Steve Keen.
Although the global financial crisis has revealed the flaws of free market economics, a return to Keynesianism is not enough to secure recovery. The needs of our times include fairer income distribution, a
sustained attack on poverty, and urgent action on climate change, writes Walden Bello.
Historically both state and market control of the economy has resulted in the same phenomenon: an impoverished underclass and a new class of
the super rich. Only a truly shared economy controlled by civil society can secure universal wealth and prosperity, writes Phillip Blond.
