Here’s what troubles me about degrowth: I just can’t bring myself to use the word. And with the help of smoke bombs, elephants and lighthouses, I can explain why. Check out the five reasons why I think degrowth needs a new name in my guest post on Duncan Green’s Poverty to Power blog. Giorgos Kallis, one of … Read more
Does economic growth have a place in the future of high-income countries? This hotly debated question covers many different debates, each with arguments to be taken seriously on both sides. There’s a long history to the beyond-growth perspective (Mill and Keynes wrote about it, for starters) but here’s a quick overview of current angles on … Read more
The RSA have just put out a really nicely produced video of a talk I gave there recently on why we need a new paradigm for economic thinking in the 21st century – or why we need Doughnut Economics. It is just 15 minutes so gives a handy overview of the concepts of planetary and … Read more
There’s no doubt that this planet is under pressure – but where is that pressure coming from? Who or what has driven three planetary boundaries to be breached, and caused the stress to be rising on many others? This 9 minute video dives into the extraordinary inequalities of resource use – within and between countries … Read more
I recently ruined an economist’s morning lie-in, and for that much I am sorry. Over at aidthoughts.org, Matt Collin read my blogpost on vandalizing economics textbooks and he got very annoyed. Why? Because I shared the view of many leading economic thinkers and critiqued this diagram, central to macroeconomics, for ignoring the environment, the unpaid … Read more
Get ready to join the world’s first guerrilla campaign to rewrite economics. The only weapon you need is a pencil…here’s why. When I studied economics at university twenty years ago, the concept of The Circular Flow of Money and Goods was the gateway to understanding macroeconomics – and it still is. It shows how households … Read more
Everyone agrees: we have to get beyond GDP. Yes, yes, but enough talk – let’s get this train moving. Some say we should forget GDP and jump straight to measuring well-being. I agree well-being measures are needed, but the economic description of the world is never going to go away, so rather than push it … Read more