Occupy - an unusual sort of protest

It is very interesting watching politicians and church trying to get their heads and hearts round the Occupy movement. It is not the usual kind of protest. It hangs about in tents. It doesn’t carry the usual shrill demands, but invites conversation. It is not about a single identifiable policy, but is trying to promoting a radical change in the way things work. And one aspect of it that should not be lost is the link between our economy and the way we treat the earth.

As the global financial colossus totters, many are saying that we need a whole new system of economics, but few can describe it. The symptoms of malaise in the current system are deep and difficult to change. The world financial system is cut loose from governments. As world politicians huff and puff about how to respond to Greece, Italy, Spain etc, the markets look down from afar and judge their puny efforts. The financial institutions fund political parties. Chancellors dare not offend. Banks must survive, governments can fall.

And it is not surprising if us ordinary folk look on the scene of destruction and say something is wrong. Here we have a debt fuelled economy where true economic growth has become confused with the creation of money as credit. And where demands for ever greater GDP appear to be inextricably linked to more carbon emissions and general environmental destruction.

Where in all this is the voice of sanity? EarthAbbey members may like to check out someone from down under in the shape of Steve Keen, an economist who says that high levels of debt in an economy inevitably cause instability and that our present economic system, which is based on issuing money as credit, tends to create waves of euphoria, as societies imagine themselves getting richer on this or that boom, only to create an inevitable recession. Stephen Keen takes on the whole neoclassical economic concensus and shows how simple analysis of the private debt/GDP ratio can accurately predict economic downturns.

One other person worth listening to just now is Ann Pettifor. Her work with the Jubilee campaign on behalf of developing countries is well known. She finds common cause, to a degree with Steven Keen and suggests that we focus lending on building the renewables infrastructure rather than consumption. There are even renewed calls for a new Jubilee, with the release of private debt, to get us back somewhere sensible in the world economy. Now that is a policy Occupy might consider adopting.

You can check all this out at Debunking Economics The quality is poor but the content fascinating.
and there is an explanation by George Monbiot at Sounding the Deeps

Thanks to Alister for alerting me to the Steven Keen debate

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