Before Science, treating the symptoms of an illness was all we had. Along our way, using trial and error, we found a few things that worked. The big breakthroughs came when we started to look for the causes of an illness. The association of an illness with toxins was deducible. Then, as we knew more and could see farther, we found that most of our physical illnesses were caused by such other things as bacteria, and viruses. Still and yet, we see...
Read More »The case for an Ecological Interest Rate
Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a...
Read More »The case for an Ecological Interest Rate
Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a...
Read More »The case for an Ecological Interest Rate
Between the Anglo-American political horror shows of 2020 and the raging pandemic, something much less theatrical drifted centre stage to play a more than usually important role: interest rates. There is one obvious reason: like waiting to witness a rare celestial event there is a high likelihood that rates will do a shocking, unusual thing and go negative. But there is another important reason that hasn’t, to date, been part of mainstream economic commentary. With more focus than ever on a...
Read More »We can’t afford a capitalism that doesn’t work for the next generation
As we look ahead, young people believe there is no regard for future generations who will suffer from the decisions taken today in the name of “economic growth”.In a recent interview the 18-year-old climate activist Xiye Bastida beautifully summarised why the next generation is angry: “Companies say their role is to help the economy. They say, they don’t have the need to be socially responsible or care about biodiversity. We create jobs.”Xiye and young climate activists around the world argue...
Read More »We can’t afford a capitalism that doesn’t work for the next generation
As we look ahead, young people believe there is no regard for future generations who will suffer from the decisions taken today in the name of “economic growth”. In a recent interview the 18-year-old climate activist Xiye Bastida beautifully summarised why the next generation is angry: “Companies say their role is to help the economy. They say, they don’t have the need to be socially responsible or care about biodiversity. We create jobs.” Xiye and young climate activists around the world...
Read More »We can’t afford a capitalism that doesn’t work for the next generation
As we look ahead, young people believe there is no regard for future generations who will suffer from the decisions taken today in the name of “economic growth”.In a recent interview the 18-year-old climate activist Xiye Bastida beautifully summarised why the next generation is angry: “Companies say their role is to help the economy. They say, they don’t have the need to be socially responsible or care about biodiversity. We create jobs.”Xiye and young climate activists around the world argue...
Read More »Rescuing Disposable Time from Oblivion
Two hundred years ago this February, Charles Wentworth Dilke anonymously published a pamphlet titled The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties, deduced from principles of political economy. Four decades later, Karl Marx would describe the pamphlet in his notes as an “important advance on Ricardo.” In his preface to volume two of Capital, Friedrich Engels described the pamphlet as the “farthest outpost of an entire literature which in the...
Read More »COP26: system change to sustain life on earth
The UN’s conference takes place in November 2021and will be led by the British government. It is apparently committed to “uniting the world to tackle climate change”.It needs to achieve far more. To tackle climate change and protect the ecosystem that sustains life on earth, we need to do more than just bring down emissions, and reimagine the economy. We must transform the current globalised financial system. Why? Because the spigot of (largely) deregulated global credit fuels global...
Read More »COP26: system change to sustain life on earth
The UN’s conference takes place in November 2021and will be led by the British government. It is apparently committed to “uniting the world to tackle climate change”. It needs to achieve far more. To tackle climate change and protect the ecosystem that sustains life on earth, we need to do more than just bring down emissions, and reimagine the economy. We must transform the current globalised financial system. Why? Because the spigot of (largely) deregulated global credit fuels global...
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