The Post Carbon Institute has been responsible for a couple of great viral videos recently. Who killed economic growth? is a pithy introduction to post growth arguments, and 300 years fossil fuels in 300 seconds has now been watched over a million times on Youtube. Perhaps emboldened by the success of the latter, PCI has gone [...]
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Talking post-growth on Radio 2
I was on the Jeremy Vine show today on Radio 2 to talk about post growth economics. The production team had come across my article on Japan, and got me in to talk about whether growth is actually necessary in an economy. On the other side of the table, Sam Bowman from the Adam Smith [...]
Two kinds of more
This week I’ve been browsing a book my wife got me for Christmas, Margaret Atwood’s In other worlds: Science fiction and the human imagination. It’s a diverse collection of the novelist’s lectures and articles on SF, superheroes and mythology, but here’s a pertinent thought from the mix: There are two kinds of ‘more’, says Atwood [...]
The IEA is wrong about wellbeing
The Institute of Economic Affairs released a paper this week called …And the Pursuit of Happiness. In a nutshell, it argues that the government is wasting its time measuring happiness, because it is economic growth that makes people happy. It adds that we shouldn’t worry about inequality either, and that big government is bad. In [...]
Redefine wealth for global prosperity
“We can’t begin to tackle poverty without growth.” The words of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, speaking in the US last year. Since the fragile peace negotiated in 2003, Liberia has had steady economic growth at an average of 7% a year. If the country can continue to build, tackle corruption, increase access to education and [...]
Alternatives to Economic Growth – day conference in Cambridge
This looks like a great post-growth conference coming up in February next year. Alternatives to Economic Growth is organised by the Cambridge Green Party, with the New Economics Foundation, Green Economics Institute and the Transition movement. It’s Saturday 18th of Feb, and there’s more information here. See you there? An underlying question to much of [...]
The 15 year income plateau
Did you realise that in 2015, you are unlikely to be any richer than you were in 2001? That’s according to the Resolution Foundation, which I mentioned last week. According to their research, average incomes in Britain have not kept pace with the last decade of growing GDP, and have fallen after the recession. Even [...]
What’s growth done for you lately?
As you may have noticed, the world’s most developed countries are in a serious panic at the moment over economic growth. With the Eurozone struggling, the weak recovery of the global economy looks distinctly shaky, and the recent G20 summit promised “an Action plan for Growth and Jobs”. Here in the UK the government is [...]
How is the government doing on its green commitments?
“The greenest government ever” was what David Cameron promised as he formed his coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The precise policy plans were laid out in the coalition agreement. So, 18 months in, how are those measures going? The Wildlife and Countryside link is an umbrella group of many of Britain’s [...]
Good news or bad news?
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by a series of good news stories that have accidentally been reported as bad news stories. Here they are: Fewer new cars were registered on Britain’s roads this year. The supermarket chain Tesco has posted its lowest growth figures for 20 years. The British arms company [...]
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