A Planetary Economy

This book asks, how would a stable, prosperous economy of the future look if one started with a blank sheet of paper? Given that the world's economy is locked into a coevolution with nature, the urgency of this question is brought into stark relief by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and ongoing climate change. While physical technologies to build such an economy mostly exist, the social technologies, in the form of institutions, governance and policies, do not. The development of these social technologies will necessitate a reconsideration of economic norms: in particular, what is the economy for, and what are we, as actors within it, striving for? This book integrates normative, institutional, political and economic requirements into a systematic framework to drive our present growth economy toward a future planetarian one. It outlines a suite of interrelated policies to increase the economy's material efficiency, establish a basic living standard, and reform the money system, while along the way eliminating economic debt and balancing government budgets. The framework and policies together form a paradigm of market planetarianism: the idea that the power of markets may be used to steer the economy toward a desired long-term goal. The methodological aspects of this paradigm are covered in the companion volume, Economics of a Crowded Planet.

Articulates the coevolution of the economy and nature, highlighting the consequences of misalignment between the two, such as climate change and pandemics Unveils a new economyaligned with natureby proposing requirements for norms, institutions, governance, policies and instruments Articulates the scale of the opportunity ahead for widespread prosperity and economic stability Presents market planetarianism: a new paradigm that shifts the power of the markets from accumulating massive wealth for the few to serving as an engine of change toward a desired state for the whole planet and its population Establishes a policy roadmap for market planetarianism as the prescriptive companion to Economics of a Crowded Planet

Autorentext
Fraser Murison Smith is an energy specialist in public utilities, formerly an information systems consultant and award-winning cleantech entrepreneur. After completing a PhD in theoretical ecology at Oxford University, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in ecological economics. He has published papers on fisheries, biodiversity and economic development, as well as two books, Environmental Sustainability: Practical Global Implications (1997) and Economics of a Crowded Planet (2019). Murison Smith and his wife, a healthcare technology leader, share their home in Northern California with two wonderful children and a canoe and tent on standby for spontaneous forays into the surrounding mountains, rivers and lakes.

Inhalt

1. The Economy's Coevolution with Nature.- 2. Economic Worldviews: Modernity and its Alternatives.- 3. Normative Requirements.- 4. Institutional Challenges and Legal Institutions.- 5. Political Institutions.- 6. Corporate and Financial Institutions.- 7. Policy Development.- 8. Requirements for Economic Policies.- 9. Requirements for Accounting Standards and Practices.- 10. Money and Finance in a Planetary Economy.- 11. Monetary and Financial Requirements.- 12. Economic Controls 1: Principles and Requirements.- 13. Economic Controls 2: Currency and Fees.- 14. Economic Controls 3: Taxation.- 15. Economic Controls 4: Subsidies, Incentives and Market Instruments.- 16. Pathway Toward a Planetary Economy.- 17. A Manifesto for Market Planetarianism.- 18. A Planetarian Society.