URL: Latest posts
The power to ‘create money out of thin air’
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"If we can move on from Adam Smith’s 300 year-old flawed analytical system to a proper understanding of the powers and public goods we have, due to ignorance, outsourced to the private banking sector – then perhaps as both economists and citi...
The Really, Really Big Picture
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition “Steadily rising energy costs and decreasing net energy yields will simply not be able to fund the future economic growth and consumptive lifestyles that developed nations are depending on (and that...
Climate change, debt and inequality ‘threaten financial stability’
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“Ahead of Davos 2013, World Economic Forum calls on policymakers to step up efforts to tackle three biggest dangers” (Source: The Guardian) Willy De Backer‘s insight: Interesting report – my favorite quote from the press release: "...
Japan as the new normal: Living in a constrained economy
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition If the end of economic growth is approaching, Japan can offer insight into the new forms of economic and societal behaviour required. Willy De Backer‘s insight: Very good article by Brendan Barrett o...
2013: a year to fight for scale in advancing sustainability
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Scale is the ‘unreasonable challenge’ we must meet to drive forward sustainability. Simon Zadek explains how to achieve this (Source: The Guardian) Willy De Backer‘s insight: Sustainability "gurus"Simon Zadek and John Elking...
On the link between resource scarcity, financial fraud and the failure of austerity policies
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition Willy De Backer‘s insight: This is an absolute must-read commentary written by Jin Chen and James Galbraith explaining how rising energy and resource constraints have led to the extreme fraudulous fi...
Conflict and Change in the Era of Economic Decline: Part 1 – The 21st century landscape of conflict
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Brilliant first part of a five-articles essay by Richard Heinberg on the social implications of the Great Decline. Absolute must-read. (Source: Energy Bulletin) “High and increasing inequality is usually bearable during boom times, as people at the...
Zero-growth is the ‘new normal’
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US economic growth will be less than 1% in the next fourty years according to a new analysis by famous American investor Jeremy Grantham. The contrarian investor sees resource scarcity and higher resource prices as well as demographic factors as the...
Ignoring natural capital could see countries’ credit ratings downgraded
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition “A report by the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) says loss of soils, forests, and fisheries, as well as rising resource costs, are likely to become increasingly importan...
The World Bank’s Shocking, Cautionary Tale on Climate Change
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“Like the Ghost of Christmas Future, the World Bank has just provided us with a frightening glimpse into our world-to-be if, unlike Scrooge, we fail to change our ways.” (Source: Huffington Post) The new World Bank report "Turn down the heat:...
You can’t say that!
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"So the real trade-off, the real choice we face, is not between climate protection on one hand and economic growth on the other. It’s between planned economic contraction (with government managing the post-carbon transition through infrastructu...
Prosperity with growth: economic growth, climate change and environmental limits
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This interesting working paper written by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment concludes that "continued economic growth is feasible and desirable, although not without significant changes in its characteristics.
The sufficiency economy: envisioning a prosperous way down
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"I address this subject having been convinced that the growth paradigm has no future and that some alternative vision is therefore needed as humanity begins its inevitable transition to a world beyond growth. I put forward the sufficiency economy...
US can become world’s biggest oil producer in a decade, says IEA
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“The US could become self-sufficient, while 90% of Middle Eastern oil could go to China, according to new estimates…” (Source: The Guardian) Yes and pigs CAN fly. I would like to know how much pressure was put on Fatih Birol and his team...
New OECD report shows world en route to zero-growth
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The new OECD report "Looking to 2060: long-term growth prospects for the world" predicts that in fifty years the combined GDP of China and India will surpass the entire OECD area. Growth will continue to be anemic in most Western countries an...
Obama 2.0: Presidential Declaration of Independence from Wall Street
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“What might a truly new economic vision for America look like? This is my answer framed as the presidential address we must prepare the way for a future president to deliver.” (Source: YesMagazine) Re-elected President Obama would do well to read...
PwC: Supply Chains Threatened by Six-Degree Global Warming
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition Some 85 percent of companies have more complex supply chains as a result of globalization, and adjusted climate forecasts mean businesses should expect climate change to have an even more destructive...
“Rapid and deep emissions reductions may not be easy, but 4°C to 6°C will be much worse”
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"So we have no historical precedents for anything greater than 1% per annum reduction in emissions. We’re saying we need nearer 10% per annum, and this is something we need to be doing today. And therefore, we can draw a very clear conclusion f...
US Elections: what no candidate says about energy and the economy
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition “What if tools of the past no longer fit the economy of the future? Economic growth, as we have known it, is being constrained by an unprecedented slowing of growth in world oil supply. America’...
Sustainable cities must look beyond city limits
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"City leaders aspiring to transform their cities into models of sustainability must look beyond city limits and include in their calculation the global flow of goods and materials into their realm, argue researchers in the Royal Swedish Academy o...
