Joan Martínez Alier: «Si la economía crece y la naturaleza decrece, hay una contradicción»

[Entrevista a Joan Martinéz Alier, Menorca, España, 09/07/2014] Es una de las voces más autorizadas sobre economía y ecología. No solo advierte de los retos y de los riesgos, sino también de cómo el medio ambiente y la naturaleza no se consideran a la hora de hablar de actividad económica, por la presión que crea el crecimiento sin fin. Su relación con Menorca ha sido … Continue reading Joan Martínez Alier: «Si la economía crece y la naturaleza decrece, hay una contradicción»

LINK Global Economic Outlook 2015-2016

[United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs] The world economy continues to grow at a moderate and uneven pace, encumbered by both the legacies of the global financial crisis and a number of new challenges. The global growth is projected to strengthen in 2015-2016, to a pace of 3.1 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively, up from the estimated rate of 2.6 per cent in 2014. This … Continue reading LINK Global Economic Outlook 2015-2016

Earth Democracy: Ten Principles of Justice, Sustainability and Peace

[Vandana Shiva] 1. Ecological Democracy – Democracy of all life We are all members of the Earth community. We all have the duty to protect the rights and welfare of all species and all people. No humans have the right to encroach on the ecological space of other species and other people, or treat them with cruelty and violence. 2. Intrinsic worth of all Species … Continue reading Earth Democracy: Ten Principles of Justice, Sustainability and Peace

What Is to Be Done? The Six Pillars of Deglobalization

[Walden Bello, lecture, 30 April 2014] Let me place my coming remarks in context, and the global context has among its key features the following: Long-term stagnation in the United States. Depression in Europe. Increasing gap in wealth in nearly all countries and globally: the richest 1% of the global population owns 40% of total assets, and the richest 10% accounts for 85%. Financialization has … Continue reading What Is to Be Done? The Six Pillars of Deglobalization

Cómo construir un nuevo modelo de desarrollo para la cooperación sur-sur

[Francois Houtart] Con el desarrollo de los BRICS, las relaciones Sur-Sur ayudan a crear un mundo multipolar, pero no cambian el modelo de desarrollo colectivo. De hecho este grupo de países se desarrollan al interior según el esquema capitalista y establecen con sus periferias, relaciones similares a los vínculos Norte- Sur existentes. El Ecuador, uno de los pocos países del Sur que adopto medidas pos-neo-liberales, no … Continue reading Cómo construir un nuevo modelo de desarrollo para la cooperación sur-sur

PLAN C: REDISTRIBUCIÓN DE LA RIQUEZA – YASUNÍ E INDÍGENAS AISLADOS

[Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales, agosto 2013(1)] Contrarrestar la pobreza en nuestro país no depende de la explotación del Yasuni – ITT, pues ésta es resultado de estructuras injustas de distribución del ingreso, que generan una economía altamente concentrada donde los mayores recursos producidos terminarán enriqueciendo a una élite pequeña de la población, al tiempo que la población mayoritaria verá mejorar sus condiciones de … Continue reading PLAN C: REDISTRIBUCIÓN DE LA RIQUEZA – YASUNÍ E INDÍGENAS AISLADOS

How economic growth has become anti-life

[Vandana Shiva, 2013] Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians. It is seen as a measure of progress. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to measure the wealth of nations, has emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times. However, economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction of nature, which in … Continue reading How economic growth has become anti-life

The Crisis of Capitalism This Time Around

[David Harvey – prologue of “Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism” (Profile Books, 2014)] Crises are essential to the reproduction of capitalism. It is in the course of crises that the instabilities of capitalism are confronted, reshaped and re-engineered to create a new version of what capitalism is about. Much gets torn down and laid waste to make way for the new. Once-productive landscapes … Continue reading The Crisis of Capitalism This Time Around

A New Story for a New Economy: To Find Our Human Place in a Living Universe

[David Korten] Economists debate whether the economy is recovering from the financial crash of 2008. Scientists debate whether Earth will recover from an economy that is destroying Earth’s capacity to support life. An unconscionable gap between rich and poor – between the profligate and the desperate – grows at an alarming rate. Economists assure us that faster economic growth will provide the technology and financial … Continue reading A New Story for a New Economy: To Find Our Human Place in a Living Universe

Global spillovers from the growth slowdown in emerging economies

[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] A concern highlighted in the latest OECD Economic Outlook is the growth slowdown in the large emerging market economies (EMEs). With the six BRIICS alone now accounting for 30% of world GDP (at PPP rates) and 15% of global equity markets, a slowdown in EMEs has larger effects on the global economy than in the past, via trade and financial cross-border … Continue reading Global spillovers from the growth slowdown in emerging economies