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In thinking about an easy way to remember all the things that need to change in order to transform our current economic systems and structures, which cause and perpetuate violence, inequality, and environmental catastrophe, I came up with this mnemonic tool for transformation. OMMMM stands for Ownership, Money, Markets, Management, and Metrics. These systems are embedded in the laws, customs, regulations, and practices that warp and twist the economy to […]

No one can deny it: economics matters. Its theories are the mother tongue of public policy, the rationale for multi-billion-dollar investments, and the tools used to tackle global poverty and manage our planetary home. Pity then that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet still dominate decision-making for the future. Today’s economics students will be among the influential citizens and policymakers shaping human societies in 2050. But the […]

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. By the end of the 21st century it will have the technological capacity to increase the income of all its citizens many times over or to radically reduce work time and thereby allow a new flowering of democracy, liberty, and personal and community creativity. The new century could be–should be–one of innovation, hope, even excitement.1 Few Americans […]

I come before you today not as an expert on environmental matters, but as someone who has devoted his professional life to social justice concerns, in particular addressing economic and social inequality in the United States and in the Global South. While much good work has been done on the inequality issue, the very bitter truth is that despite our best efforts, inequality is growing dramatically in nations around the […]