One of the points which we all must grasp is that “the economy” and “economics” – the ‘lens’ through which we judge success and failure – are, to a great extent, human constructions. We have entrusted the development and maintenance of this lens (the more commonly used word is paradigm) to a group of people [...]
Martin Large (Nailsworth LM) describes how Community Land Trusts are bringing social, cultural, economic and other benefits across the UK. Securing affordable and open access to land is a live issue here in Stroud. Our local Community Land Trust (CLT), Gloucestershire Land for People has just announced a partnership with Kevin McLeod, presenter of Grand [...]
October 21, 2009 – 4:31 pm by Simon Bond
Posted in Events
Anne Pettifor in Reading Anne Pettifor (who helped launch Jubilee 2000 and is one of the authors of the Green New Deal) gave a very interesting talk at Reading University yesterday (20th October). Her main focus was on the role of money in the economy and how it is created by the banks. She argued [...]
October 6, 2009 – 1:18 pm by James
Posted in Zero Growth Economy
The writers of the Pentateuch banned interest and introduced a 50-year Jubilee for cancellation of debts. Confucian China discovered most of the technical breakthroughs that led the West to prosperity and rejected them: they were more concerned to avoid social disruption than to achieve commercial progress. In the period that produced cathedrals the king’s currency [...]
October 5, 2009 – 5:58 pm by Grace
Posted in About the bloggers
Grace Crookall-Greening was a member of Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) Economic Issues Group from 2001-2007. She started out as a journalist, and ended her paid employment working in co-operative development; was media secretary and QPS puplications editor in the ’80s. With late husband John she helped start Bedfordshire Climate Change Forum 12 years [...]
October 5, 2009 – 5:57 pm by Grace
Posted in Zero Growth Economy
I would rather we had couched the title question as ‘What would a more equal society within a zero growth economy mean for us all?’ That might have focused attention more positively and acknowledged the need for redistribution of wealth and power from the start. Zero growth, Duncan Green said in relation to developing countries, [...]
October 5, 2009 – 4:59 pm by Sunniva
Posted in Zero Growth Economy
Duncan Green (of Oxfam) and Alistair McIntosh (social activist and author), two of the speakers at the confernce, have written about their involvement in the event and reflections on what was discussed. See Duncan’s blog, From Poverty to Power at http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=925, and Alistair McIntosh’s contribution to Face to faith in the Guardian on Saturday 3rd October at [...]
October 2, 2009 – 2:18 pm by zenzen
Posted in Zero Growth Economy
My thoughts 1. Good news – an excellent conference (well conceived, well organized, excellent speakers) 2. Bad news – most of it could have happened in 1976 (difference = cumulative worsening of impacts). 3. Conclusion – we need to get our act together and fast as today we are 10 nil down versus the ‘enemy’. [...]
September 30, 2009 – 9:36 pm by cyn
Posted in Zero Growth Economy
I was at a public meeting last night organised by our parish council to discuss the Borough Council’s options paper and core strategy which are part of the new planning process, the Local Development Framework, which government has introduced to replace the old Local Plan process. Gone are the direct questions about whether to support [...]
