Here's a book review that I did for this month's New Start magazine:
There’s nothing particularly new about new economics. Lots of the ideas which are explored in The New Economics: A Bigger Picture – such as how traditional economics ignores environmental impact, or how our economic system encourages consumption for its own sake, have been discussed on the economic fringes for years.
Yet what is new is that the person sat next to you on the bus is likely to have opinions about economics. Pre credit crunch, starting a conversation with your thoughts on the damaging impact of currency speculation was a sure fire way to get the whole of the top deck to yourself. Now people understand that economics isn’t something that just happens elsewhere. It affects our lives. It is about our lives.
The value of this book is that it explores key economic theories through storytelling. We are told why modern Britons work harder than mediaeval peasants. Why we export the same number of chocolate waffles as we import. And why fewer people vote when they live near a Wal-Mart.
The stories highlight the basic problems – such as the lack of social capital in a town dominated by a big retailer – compared to one with a host of locally-owned shops. But it doesn’t just point to slightly depressing realities. Instead each chapter then explores some New Economics-inspired solutions – such as radical action to challenge local retailing semi-monopolies, or to encourage more local enterprise.
The problems may not be new, and some of the solutions have been around for years. But there is a new coherence and energy behind much of this thinking – which is well explored in this book.
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