Will a failure in hub interdependencies lead to economic and social disintegration? The connection between the energy and finance institutions, as well as the state of public health are explored to examine whether there might be a “cross contagion” of … Continued
Money experiments took place during the financial crises of the 1930s. Although these were repressed by central banks, the need to control the finance sector during and after the world war was recognised so that the 1940s and 1950s was … Continued
Many, though by no means all, indigenous peoples practiced sustainable land care and used concepts that contrast strongly with modern economics thinking. Much economic thinking is intrinsically ecologically destructive. To describe the European merchant adventurers as “discovering” the rest of … Continued
The chapter draws on the ideas of Erich Fromm and, more recently, Oliver James, to describe the problem of Affluenza. It critiques the recent enthusiasm of some economists like Richard Layard for a theory of “happiness” and “positive psychology”. A … Continued
This book opens with an explanation of the term “faiths” used in the book and goes on to discuss the inertia of established ideas. It describes economics as an orientation system for a market society and argues that bad economics … Continued
Temporal inequality is a little noticed feature of our society. Poor people wait for things – the well-off are waited on. Temporal inequality is crucial to understanding people’s time choices. The typologies for households may also help to map particular … Continued
Mainstream economics regards environmental protection as a matter of finding the “right price” for environmental preferences. This is not how indigenous people think about environmental issues. The chapter contrasts the mentalities of people that belong to places vs the mind-set … Continued
Externalities involve ethical choices. The mechanisms that allow corporate actors to distance themselves from responsibility from their anti-social and anti-environmental choices are described – for example the role of corporate personhood and evasions of regulation, taxation and control. NGOs and … Continued
Mainstream economics frames the climate crisis in a particular way but this approach is not at all helpful. There have been a variety of controversies which show clearly how economists think – like the “price of a life” controversy. The … Continued
This chapter explores the assumptions about human nature on which mainstream economics is based. The description of “rational economic man” ignores most psychological and psychotherapy understandings of people. Key to the conceptual confidence trick are assumptions about what people in … Continued