Financing the transition to a green economy

John Mathews 16 February 2012
By keeping investments in clean energy off the agenda, the Kyoto process delayed by a decade any serious engagement with global warming. To get the transformation of capitalism on its way, a serious rethink of eco-investment finance is essential.

Of incontinence pads and private equity

Gerhard Schnyder 16 February 2012
Recent revelations on the privatised health and elderly care sectors in Sweden make for an excellent example of the worst excesses that the profit-motive can lead to in formerly state-run sectors.

Economics as a public art

Judith Marquand 15 February 2012
Time to move beyond neoliberalism and its convenient amnesia. Economic policy should be practiced as a public art, not an elite science.

Uneconomics: a challenge to the power of the economics profession

William Davies 9 February 2012
The fall-out from the financial crash is continuing to destroy lives around the globe, yet the power of economists is being entrenched, rather than questioned. In this debate, we bring together anthropologists, sociologists, historians and heterodox economists to ask and answer the big questions.

China’s big bet on green industry – and how it might green the world

John Mathews 3 February 2012
After the failure of Durban, a promising plan B to reducing carbon emissions rests upon green development industrial strategies being pursued by individual countries. And here China is in the vanguard.

The flaws of Capitalism - and how to fix them

Dennis Nottebaum 30 January 2012
In the run-up to Davos 2012, Martin Wolf has outlined some essential aspects of an overhaul of Capitalism. But does he go far enough, or do we need a more holistic approach? Which points is he missing? openDemocracy writers reflect on the flaws of Capitalism.
(updated)

What “Great Transformation”?

Jakob Vestergaard 30 January 2012
Martin Wolf’s suggestions for an overhaul of our economic system are sensible, but fundamentally insufficient for the Great Transformation we need.

Jimmy Wales or Kim Dotcom - is anti-SOPA about fundamental principles or competing commercial interests?

Tony Curzon Price and Albert Wenger 28 January 2012
In this podcast, Tony Curzon Price talks to Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square Ventures, the venture capital fund behind a lot of the most innovative and visible web companies of today, to try to understand: is anti-SOPA activism more about principle or about the competing interests of big Tech vs. big Entertainment

A little rebellion, now and then...

Jeremy Fox 28 January 2012
Martin Wolf recognizes many of the ills of our existing economic arrangements, but his solutions involve little more than tinkering.

Britain needs a transformative budget

Oliver Huitson 27 January 2012
Britain is on the brink of a double-dip recession. She needs to begin the fundamental reshaping of her political economy... and this is where I'd start.

The Precariat: why it needs deliberative democracy

Guy Standing 27 January 2012

To arrest the drift to social engineering, the voice of those subject to the steering should be inside the institutions responsible for social policy. This means more than putting token ‘community leaders’ on boards. It must be a collective democratic voice. At present, we see the opposite.

Travelling on duty

Christian Kellermann 25 January 2012
If Martin Wolf remained true to his analysis, he would endeavour to explain the win-win-situation of an internationalisation of some taxation in order to regain national tax sovereignty and provide for the appropriate means to generate more equality effectively.

What happened to the greening of capitalism?

John Mathews 24 January 2012
Martin Wolf has presented a provocative diagnosis of the current flaws found in capitalism. Unfortunately, he has nothing to say about the biggest issue of all – how to transform capitalism so that it does not continue to destroy the planet.

Dear Mr Wolf… Reflections for the Magic Mountain

Simon Zadek 23 January 2012
Can Davos 2012 offer real alternatives or will it serve up a smiling, gritted-teeth espousal that ‘business as usual’ can and should be sustained?

Who got left behind? How rising inequality is affecting countries across the G20

Guppi Bola 21 January 2012
The correlation between economic growth and inequality is not as strong as many would like to believe. Combating inequality can, in fact, lift the poor out of extreme poverty, but this can happen in countries with only modest growth.

Euro: Writing on the wall?

Our debate about the euro and the euro zone crisis.

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