Making Sense of Things

Posts tagged with economy

• 11 February 2011 - Is the world as we know it going to collapse?

  It seems that the closer we get to 2012 and the more we hear of ‘end-of-the-times’ related cataclysmic stories. Since the 2012 Hollywood blockbuster released in 2009, the belief in the end of our ‘age’ and subsequent birth of a new one as conceived by the Mayan calendar, has become mainstreamed. Personally, we don’t believe in the so-called Mayan prophecy and 2012 does not worry us more than 2011 or 2013. Having said that, one cannot ignore the frenzy around the idea of the collapse of the world as we know it. We’ve decided to look into the subject and see if there is any susbtance behind these warnings – and whether we should worry or not. Please note that this post is a follow-up to this one, where we argued that rather than viewing ‘collapse’ through the lens of conspiracy theories, we could understand it in a historical … Read the rest

• 16 September 2010 - Neoliberalism? I’m tired of this shit. Let’s push for a systemic economic change

  A friend of mine sent me yesterday a very very interesting document, titled Manifesto on Global Economic Transitions. Published in September 2007 by the International Forum on Globalization, it had foreseen the need for a systemic change even before the (latest) GFC (global financial crisis). In opposition to the current unsustainable neoliberal dogma, it rightly argues that “less and local” are the way forward. Indeed, in light of the current resource depletion and destruction, climate change, financial crisis, socio-economic inequalities, and societies which overarching values are driven by profit rather than well-being, we need a systemic economic change – along a systemic change in our values, but that’s another story. So, if you too understand all too well that the neoliberal doctrine is in its deathbed, you’ll be thrilled to read that the authors of the Manifesto push for “Economies of Ecological Sustainability, Equity, Sufficiency and Peace”. Sustainability, what else? … Read the rest