Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Bang Goes the Theory •Euros discarded as impoverished Greeks resort to bartering •Ending the Era of Ponzi Finance •The Most Depressing Economic Idea of 2012: The (Near) End of Growth •’Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself’
Once upon a time we nomads settled down and created agriculture. The efficiencies of that agriculture released labour for both trade and the trades which in turn evolved centres of production and consumption which we know as rural villages, harbour towns and market towns. I’ll leave aside the influences (usually malign) of power in the simultaneous creation of walled cities, fortresses, trade blocs, dukedoms, ring roads, cloned towns, retail parks, gated communities and distorted and perverse social systems.
I am struggling to come to terms with the possibility that Japan may economically be the “new normal”. By “new normal” I mean a situation where the economy is in recession for prolonged periods of time, seeing only fleeting periods of growth. My struggle relates to the fact that conventional wisdom would suggest that after two decades of recessionary tendencies, Japan should be an economic and societal wreck. But quite the opposite is the case. In many respects Japan seems to be doing fine.
Most folks in Washington and on Wall Street are desperate to avoid the fiscal cliff. That’s because the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that would take effect if we go over the edge would mean an end to recovery and a resumption of economic contraction.
WUD Society and Politics Committee, and Madison Peak Oil Group host energy/finance expert Nate Hagens for a presentation that weaves together economics, anthropology, psychology, finance, trade, energy and human behavior into a coherent story about our human social system.
•On the Road to Zero Growth •Is green growth possible? •Living Without Economic Growth •Have we really seen the end of growth?
-Narcissism, Consumerism and the End of Growth
-Spain’s next threat: Losing 20% of its economy
-How Transition is starting to rebuild Ontario
-Amid the Echoes of an Economic Crash, the Sounds of Greek Society Being Torn
The world will soon enter the sixth year of the Great Recession, and there is no end in sight. In the United States, where stagnation continues to reign, some 23 million Americans remain out of work, are underemployed, or have simply dropped out of the labor force owing to frustration–a condition that now threatens to precipitate Barack Obama’s replacement by a Republican candidate whose program would only worsen the crisis.
