The government is considering removing the benefits
from those convicted of last week’s riots. Amidst the criticism of the plan’s
feasibility, an important issue has been neglected: are benefits a right or a
privilege?
It's been 40 years since The Limits to Growth was published and yet and we remain wedded to the notion that we can enjoy infinite growth in a finite world.
A new report this week from Age UK warns us of “Care in Crisis”, as services for older people face a perfect storm of escalating demand and falling funding. Now more than ever, coproduction and the core economy must be pushed onto the mainstream agenda.
One of the
many long-running gags in popular US cartoon series The Simpsonsis the hopelessly
depressing life led by Abe Simpson, unfortunate father of the less than
attentive Homer.
Last week was a tragic one in the prison system. The
apparent suicide of two
teenagers in separate incidents has thrown the spotlight back on the youth
prison system. These incidents call into question the ability of young
offenders institutions to provide proper care for the children in their care.
There were many warning signs.
The theme of this year's Davos meeting was the 'Great Transformation'. Over the last three years nef has argued a similar line, promoting the need for what we call a Great Transition.
Our unique strength as an organisation is that we have a very clear analysis of the systemic and international problems advanced economies are currenly facing. We understand how sustainability challenges link with inequality, with increasing instability of economies, and how all of these affect human well-being.
Publication introduction:
We are in the second phase of an economic crisis which is global in its scale and reach, affecting all our major institutions and established ways of thinking. How did we get here? And what can we do now to prevent worldwide economic meltdown?
The UK is sliding back into
recession and Eurozone unemployment has hit new highs. Uncertainty stalks
China, Brazil and other rising economies. We may be heading for a global
recession.
Politicians call for austerity and little else. But spending cuts are
economically illiterate. They wreck weak economies by locking them into a
cycle explained by John Maynard Keynes over 80 years ago:
While our elected representatives prove unwilling to take action, people around the world have started organising their own alternatives to our defective financial system.
In
a single month last year, October, an estimated 650,000 people in the United
States closed their bank accounts and moved their money to a credit union. They
are part of a growing movement of people who are voting with their savings
against the mainstream banks. What is driving it?
Oh well, that’s alright
then. They've stripped Fred the Shred of his knighthood. The
financial crisis is solved. The world breathes easily.
It is an extraordinary
technique, and a disastrous one, that – time after time – the British political
establishment uses to avoid action.
They narrow down the problem,
increasingly absurdly, to some symbolic gesture. Then they do it, and
keep their fingers crossed that history will move on.
In fact, it is tough today to
work out which is the most annoying.
