Agenda for a New Economy Review by Gene Marshall

Many of you will remember David Korten from his When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. Berrett-Koehler collaborated with Korten in rushing out this timely book on the financial crisis. Wonderfully clarifying, forward-looking, easy to understand, the book is excellent grist for understanding the banking crisis and the structures and practices that led to it. Korten not only gives a devastating critique of the current state of affairs; he also gives us a doable 12-point New Economic Agenda that calls for an extensive overhaul of the current economy.

Spelling this out in an understandable fashion would require more space than I have, but here are two colorful quotes: “Since Wall Street behaves like a criminal syndicate, government should treat it like a criminal syndicate. Prosecute the guilty and require the merely culpable to clean up their act or fold their tents.” (page 124). “It's time to recover from the Wall Street bookies what we can of their unearned phantom loot and encourage them to take up honest work by rendering their schemes against society either illegal or unprofitable.” (page 125). If, in your economic thinking, you want to move beyond the minor reforms that Congress and the Obama administration will be struggling to enact,this is the book for you.

Realistic Living, June 2009