A Steady-State Economy

Interesting articles
Time to banish the god of growth
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg20026782.500-editorial-tim...

'In 1972, three scientists from MIT created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results published through the Club of Rome (http://www.clubofrome.org/) shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global 'overshoot,' or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. The Environmental scientists Donnella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have teamed up to update and expand their original findings in The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Global Update.
Meadows, Randers, and Meadows are international environmental leaders recognized for their groundbreaking research into early signs of wear on the planet. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot, the scientists now provide us with an updated scenario and a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet.
Over the past three decades, population growth and global warming have forged on with a striking semblance to the scenarios laid out by the World3 computer model in the original Limits to Growth. While Meadows, Randers, and Meadows do not make a practice of predicting future environmental degradation, they offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use, and assess a variety of possible outcomes.
In many ways, the message contained in Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a warning. Overshoot cannot be sustained without collapse. But, as the authors are careful to point out, there is reason to believe that humanity can still reverse some of its damage to Earth if it takes appropriate measures to reduce inefficiency and waste.
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a long anticipated revival of some of the original voices in the growing chorus of sustainability. Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update is a work of stunning intelligence that will expose for humanity the hazy but critical line between human growth and human development.'

Limits to growth: The 30-year Update
By Donella H. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows
Published by Chelsea Green Pub., 2004
ISBN 1931498512, 9781931498517

Synopsis
http://www.clubofrome.at/archive/limits.pdf

Abstract of 1972 publication
http://www.clubofrome.org/docs/limits.rtf

This blog is operated by nef (the new economics foundation).

The world is currently experiencing a 'triple crunch' of financial crisis, climate change and high oil prices. http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_PublicationDetail.aspx?pid=267

From the Ashes of the Crash
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_PublicationDetail.aspx?pid=268

Current responses simply aren’t getting to the root of the problem. As the world slips further into financial and environmental freefall, this blog builds on over 20 years of new economics thinking and practice to set out solutions to the interlinked challenges we face.
http://neftriplecrunch.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/paradigm-reclaimed-why-a...
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/04/economics-economy

Based on then ground-breaking modelling, the forecasts of global ecological and economic collapse by mid-century contained in the controversial 1972 book; The Limits to Growth, are still 'on-track' according to new CSIRO research.

The Limits to Growth' modelled scenarios for the future global economy and environment and recommended far reaching changes to the way we live to avoid disaster.

In a paper published in the August edition of the international journal; Global Environmental Change, CSIRO physicist Dr Graham Turner compares forecasts from the book with global data from the past 30 years.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VFV-4T7D8DY-1...

"The real-world data basically supports The Limits to Growth model," he says. "It shows that for the first 30 years of the model, the world has been tracking along the unsustainable trajectory of the book's business-as-usual scenario."

http://www.csiro.au/multimedia/Growth-Limits.html

http://www.csiro.au/files/files/plje.pdf

Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster
http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/2009/02/18/managing-without-growth-slower-...

Hundreds if not thousands of intellectuals across the world have by now come to their own conclusion that continued economic growth on this planet no longer makes sense, since the present rates of consumption in developed countries are unsustainable.

Summary: This paper is about adapting the economic system so that it can respond to the challenge of climate change. It argues that the highest priority has to be given to eliminating the need for rich countries to continue to grow economically if they are to prevent their economies collapsing. The paper argues that their need for growth arises because they issue their money as a debt. If this was changed in the way suggested, they would be able to cut their emissions sharply with immediate effect.

The paper also discusses other monetary changes needed to give governments the economic freedom to respond the climate crisis and suggests the introduction of a system of tradable personal emissions allocations to protect the poor from the worst effects of the higher energy prices that will result from effective restrictions on greenhouse emissions.
http://www.feasta.org/documents/energy/Feasta_Stern_Review.htm

IN 2004 Barry Schwartz published a book on how too much choice can increase wrong decisions and reduce wellbeing.
The following link is a 20 minute presentation that you should find of interest.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choi...

The current economic growth agenda demands increasing individual choice in order to keep expanding. As can be seen perhaps this is another area that proves that we have hit our limits of growth?

The First International De-growth Conference was held in Paris last year in April 2008. More than 100 international Scientists and members of civil society from social, environmental, physical or economic backgrounds contributed to the Paris conference on " Economic Degrowth for Sustainability and Equity ".
Proceedings are available from:
http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/en/appel/Degrowth%20Conf...

Economic De-growth for Sustainability and Equity
http://www.degrowth.net/Economic-Degrowth-for

Transition to a Sustainable Economy

Tim Jackson (2009), Report to Sustainable Development Commission, London: Sustainable Development Commission.

SDC latest report argues that the pursuit of economic growth is one of the root causes of the current financial crisis, as well contributing to a growing environmental crisis and undermining well-being in developed countries.

Economic growth is supposed to deliver prosperity. Higher incomes should mean better choices, richer lives, an improved quality of life for us all. That at least is the conventional wisdom. But things haven’t always turned out that way.

Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. The global economy is almost five times the size it was half a century ago. If it continues to grow at the same rate the economy will be 80 times that size by the year 2100.

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/prosperity_withou...

Listen to Tim Jackson on the dilemma of economic growth
He is Professor of Sustainable Development in the Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) at the University of Surrey.
http://preview.fatbeehivefilms.com/sdc/pwg_final_edit.mp3

'MY STORY starts with a theory that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher sold us. It is called "supply-side economics", and it claims that economic growth depends, first, on the rich (not the poor) being rewarded with tax cuts; and second, on markets being freed from regulation.

Clearly the theory is flawed. The rush by bankers to pay themselves large bonuses, even as their failing banks were being nationalised, reveals the true function of this bloated remuneration - to benefit only its recipients - while the banks failed precisely because their regulation was too lax.'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327181.200-falling-out-of-love-w...

Beyond the Growth Paradigm
A new intellectual renaissance has begun

Interesting articles originally posted by Chris J.
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/85

Great site with lots of useful economic texts and information.
http://www.paecon.net/

The Enlightened!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVp8UGjECt4

Interesting link from John M.

By 2050 or so, the world population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. In Dot Earth, reporter Andrew C. Revkin examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits. Supported in part by a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Mr. Revkin tracks relevant news from suburbia to Siberia, and conducts an interactive exploration of trends and ideas with readers and experts.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/daly-on/

Rich nations will have to forget about growth to stop climate change

Economic expansion cannot be achieved forever if greenhouse gases are to be curbed, warns the leading economist and author of the UK's government's report on climate change

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/11/stern-economic-growth-...

Temporary Recession or the End of Growth?
http://heinberg.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/museletter-208-_-august-2009...

Peak oil - coming soon but when?
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue50/Smith50.pdf

Contemporary economics and the crisis
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue50/Lawson50.pdf

Biophysical economics is characterized by a wide range of analysts from diverse fields who use ecology and thermodynamics to analyze the economic process. The history of biophysical thought is traced from the 18th-century Physiocrats to current empirical research, with emphasis on those individuals who contributed to the development of biophysical economic theory. Attention is also given to a critique of the neoclassical theory of natural resources from a biophysical perspective, and how recent empirical biophysical research highlights areas of neoclassical theory which could be improved by a more realistic and systematic treatment of natural resources.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biophysical_economics

Measuring what matters
Man does not live by GDP alone. A new report urges statisticians to capture what people do live by.
http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14447...

Forget GDP: happiness is the secret of success
Rising national wealth does not necessarily make people more satisfied with their lot, so economists and politicians are looking beyond growth to questions of well-being.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/20/economics-wealth-gdp-happ...

Stiglitz/Sen/Fitoussi report
http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/documents/rapport_anglais.pdf

“GDP has increasingly become used as a measure of societal well-being and changes in the structure of the economy and our society have made it increasingly poor one,” Stiglitz said in an interview.

John Stuart Mill
Principles of Political Economy" - Book IV, Chapter VI
(1848)

http://www.panarchy.org/mill/stationary.1848.html

Economics and the Case of Rational Addiction Theories

Rational addiction theories illustrate how absurd choice theories in economics get taken seriously as possibly true explanations and tools for welfare analysis despite being poorly interpreted, empirically unfalsifiable, and based on wildly inaccurate assumptions selectively justified by ad-hoc stories. The lack of transparency introduced by poorly anchored mathematical models, the psychological persuasiveness of stories, and the way the profession neglects relevant issues are suggested as explanations for how what we perhaps should see as displays of technical skill and ingenuity are allowed to blur the lines between science and games.

(Oil as an addictive substance)

http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/stuff_for_blog/addiction.pdf

This is an analysis of both conventional money and the new community money, in the context of a sustainable economy. A sustainable economy cannot be achieved while we continue to depend on conventional money. This assertion is supported not only by concise theoretical analysis, but also by observations gathered from all around the world over many centuries.
http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/explore/sustain.html

60 Years of the WIR Economic Circle Cooperative
Origins and Ideology of the Wirtschaftsring
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/wir.html
http://www.wir.ch/index.cfm?DC86BF333C1811D6B9950001020761E5&o_lang_id=1

http://beyondmoney.net/

Money as Debt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJRf_Bh5HMI&annotation_id=annotation_2573...

Two good reports spotted by Mike H.

The financial system needs to start working like a productive ecosystem. It should be characterised by diversity and an ability to sustain specialised and adapted life in the face of external shocks. Instead of a monoculture of mega-banks deemed too big to fail and answerable only to the demands of private shareholders, an ecology of finance would involve a range of different financial institutions.
http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Ecology_of_Fina...

How can the money system be made to work better? How can its workings be made less mysterious - easier for politicians and citizens to understand? This report gives the answers.
The existing money system is out of date. In modern democratic societies, the value created by issuing new money should be a common, not a private, resource. New money should be put into circulation as public spending, not as profit-making loans by commercial banks. In Britain, the result would be equivalent to 12p off income tax. Other countries would benefit comparably.
In the information age, money has mainly become information, electronically stored and transmitted. Monetary policies that serve the public interest can no longer be founded on a smoke-and-mirrors fiction that “real money” lurks behind the information.
http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Creating_New_Mo...

Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO)
http://www.csiro.au/resources/SEEDPaper19.html

http://www.wonderfulworldmedia.net/?p=214

Sheet no.1 in the Free Range 'Energy Beyond Oil' Project's 'Simplicity/Less' series of handouts looks at Limits to Growth – Why the Only Solution is "Less".
http://www.fraw.org.uk/download/ebo/s01/index.shtml

In this paper, Partha Dasgupta formalizes the idea of sustainable development in terms of intergenerational well-being. He then sketches an argument that has recently been put forward formally to demonstrate that intergenerational well-being increases over time if and only if a comprehensive measure of wealth per capita increases. The measure of wealth includes not only manufactured capital, knowledge and human capital (education and health), but also natural capital (e.g. ecosystems). He shows that a country's comprehensive wealth per capita can decline even while gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increases and the UN Human Development Index records an improvement...

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1537/5.full.pdf+html

Continuing global economic growth "is not possible" if nations are to tackle climate change, a report by an environmental think-tank has warned.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8478770.stm

http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/growth-isnt-possible?utm_source...

The Impossible Hamster
http://www.impossiblehamster.org/

Complex economic formulas developed by two professors of economics, Curtis Eaton and Mukesh Eswaran, and published in the current edition of the Economic Journal, suggest that greater affluence can seriously damage a nation's health. Based on their mathematical modeling, the economists advance the theory that once a country reaches a reasonable standard of living there is little further benefit to be had from increasing the wealth of its population. Indeed, it could make people feel worse off.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/14/wealth-warning-money-bad-...

Abstract:
The happiness literature has established that, in the developed countries, increasing affluence has not increased well-being in recent decades. We seek an explanation for this in terms of conspicuous consumption, a phenomenon originally identified by Veblen. We develop some simple general equilibrium models that incorporate a Veblen good, among others. In all of our models, as productivity increases, the Veblen good eventually dominates the economy in the sense that, by reducing leisure, more than all the added productivity is dissipated in the production of this good. Also, in the presence of a Veblen good, productivity increases destroy social capital.
Early version of report
http://econ.ucalgary.ca/sites/econ.ucalgary.ca/files/publications/Veblen...

WWF UK has recently begun a 2 year innovative EC funded project exploring “How can the EU become a One Planet Economy by 2050?” WWF UK is one of 8 partners and is both managing the project and implementing key elements.

This is a cutting edge project working with a very diverse range of senior stakeholders, many of whom will be at Director level in the EU, from either a policy, business, academic or NGO background.

http://www.oneplaneteconomynetwork.org/

The economic crash of 2008 revealed not only the frailty and vulnerability of the economic system, it also showed the false basis that the growth economy is built on – the financial bubble grows bigger and crashes bigger, but we don't seem to be getting any happier. To the contrary, we suffer from greater job insecurity and environmental chaos threatens.

Many have been pointing out that our current economic system is leading us to an environmental and social catastrophe. "Life After Growth" begins to point to the people and communities who are looking for ways out. These are the pioneers who are rethinking the role of economics in our lives, and are engaging in different types of economic activity, right now.

The D word is still taboo in many circles – politicians are loath to go against the growth orthodoxy that our society is based on. But everywhere people are engaging in degrowth type activity - the beginning of a wave that is laying the groundwork for a post-capitalist future...

Because it's not the size of the economy that counts, its how you use it!

This film is part of an ongoing project to document the rise of a new movement – calling not for more economic growth, but LESS. The degrowth movement, or "mouvement por le decroissance", argues that through a voluntary reduction of the economy we can work less, consume less and live better, fuller live
http://www.vimeo.com/10871269

Interesting paper from The Economic Journal
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122455607/abstract

The happiness literature has established that, in the developed countries, increasing affluence has not increased well-being in recent decades. We seek an explanation for this in terms of conspicuous consumption, a phenomenon originally identified by Veblen. We develop some simple general equilibrium models that incorporate a Veblen good, among others. In all of our models, as productivity increases, the Veblen good eventually dominates the economy in the sense that, by reducing leisure, more than all the added productivity is dissipated in the production of this good. Also, in the presence of a Veblen good, productivity increases destroy social capital.

Working Paper
http://econ.ucalgary.ca/sites/econ.ucalgary.ca/files/publications/Veblen... (Working Paper)
This paper is motivated by a well-established paradox concerning the relationship between per capita income and perceived well-being in a­ffluent societies: over time, we get richer, but we don't get happier. This result raises the disturbing possibility that, in a­ffluent countries, we may be consuming resources and despoiling the environment for no good purpose. And it suggests that society's (and our profession's) emphasis on growth may be badly misplaced.

Veblen Good
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Paul Ehrlich is a professor of population studies at Stanford University

'Few non-scientists are familiar with the basic idea that environmental damage is a product of population size, per capita consumption, and the sorts of technologies and social and economic systems that supply the consumption. A vast “culture gap” has developed over the past century or so between what our society knows and what each individual knows—a gap that has proven especially troubling when elected officials and other leaders have almost no knowledge of science.'

'Overconsumption by the rich is central to the deterioration of human life-support systems, but is ignored because most business economists, corporate executives, and politicians view it as an unalloyed good. To lead decent lives, at least two billion people are in dire need of more consumption, but extending American consumption patterns to even today's 6.8 billion people is not only unsustainable but likely a biophysical impossibility.'
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1...

real-world economics review paper
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue53/Smith53.pdf
Abstract: Recent publications have revived interest in Herman Daly’s proposal for a Steady-State Economy. This paper argues, first, that the idea of a steady-state capitalism is based on untenable assumptions, starting with the assumption that growth is optional rather than built-into capitalism. I argue that irresistible and relentless pressures for growth are functions of the day-to-day requirements of capitalist reproduction in a competitive market, incumbent upon all but a few businesses, and that such pressures would prevail in any conceivable capitalism. Secondly, this paper takes issue with Professor Daly’s thesis, which also underpins his SSE model, that capitalist efficiency and resource allocation is the best we can come up with. I argue that this belief is misplaced and incompatible with an ecological economy, and therefore it undermines Daly’s own environmental goals. I conclude that since capitalist growth cannot be stopped, or even slowed, and since the market-driven growth is driving us toward collapse, ecological economists should abandon the fantasy of a steady-state capitalism and get on with the project figuring out what a post–capitalist economic democracy could look like.

An updated version of an article which was originally published in August 2009 by Richard Heinberg .

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/53766

and as mentioned in this article two reports:

Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007-08
http://www.brookings.edu/economics/bpea/~/media/Files/Programs/ES/BPEA/2...

The Need for a New Biophysical-Based Paradigm in Economics for the Second Half of the Age of Oil
http://www.peakoil.net/files/the%20need%20for%20a%20new%20biophysical-ba...

Herman Daly, Professor of Ecological Economics, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, USA

Mainstream growth-obsessed economics can be tripped up by a very basic economic concept: opportunity cost. It's time we recognised that 'economic growth' is a misnomer: it's uneconomic.
http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/2010/08/16/opportunity-cost-of-growth?u...

Papers in the publication Ecological Economics

Sustainable de-growth is the transition to a smaller economy with less production and consumption. A new study has explored its origins and compared it to sustainable development. The study found that to become a viable alternative to sustainable development, ‘de-growth’ needs to be more clearly defined, and its implications for employment need to be considered very carefully

“Sustainable de-growth” is both a concept and a social grassroots (Northern) movement with its origins in the fields of ecological economics, social ecology, economic anthropology and environmental and social activist groups. This paper introduces the concept of sustainable de-growth by mapping some of the main intellectual influences from these fields,with special focus on the Francophone and Anglophone thinking about this emergent notion. We propose hypotheses pertaining to the appeal of sustainable de-growth, and compare it to the messages enclosed within the dominant sustainable development idea. We scrutinize the theses, contradictions, and consequences of sustainable de-growth thinking as it is currently being shaped by a heterogeneous body of literature and as it interacts with an ample and growing corpus of social movements. We also discuss possible future paths for the de-growth movement compared to the apparent weakening of the sustainable development paradigm.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-505CB18-1...
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Also
The end of economic growth? A contracting threshold hypothesis
This paper argues that GDP growth in both developed and developing countries has associated costs that can outweigh the benefits and thus reduce sustainable well-being. This conclusion is based upon the findings of empirical applications of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) to a range of countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The studies conducted on seven Asia-Pacific countries indicate that, in the case of five of the seven nations, more recent GDP growth has reduced the sustainable well-being experienced by the average citizen residing within them. Moreover, the threshold point at which the costs of GDP growth outweigh the benefits appears to be contracting (i.e., occurring at a much lower per capita level of GDP). This paper therefore introduces a new contracting threshold hypothesis: as the economies of the Asia-Pacific region and the world collectively expand in a globalised economic environment, there is a contraction over time in the threshold level of per capita GDP. As a consequence, the threshold point confronting growth late-comers (i.e., developing countries) occurs at a much lower level of sustainable welfare than what wealthy nations currently enjoy. The consequences of this for developing countries are clearly significant and require a new approach to economic development.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-50FCTKT-2...

Thanks to Mike H for finding this.
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“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist”.
Kenneth Boulding

In this report, the fifth in the Tullett Prebon Strategy Insights series, they set out the core thesis, which is that the global economy is in the grip of a forest of dangerous financial and non-financial exponentials. (Tullett Prebon operates as an intermediary in wholesale financial markets facilitating the trading activities of its clients, in particular commercial and investment banks.)
http://www.tlpr.com/documents/strategyinsights/tp0510_tpsi_report_005_lr...
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Also listen to Professor Joseph Tainter
Complexity & Collapse
http://www.financialsensenewshour.com/broadcast/fsn2010-0908-1.mp3

"De-growth" Is the state of that which "de-grows", i.e. reduces.
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More specifically, de-growth presents two aspects:
1 - As a slogan which calls into question the consensus for growth (including economic growth).
It is a question then of a key word to defy, amongst other things, economisim (merchandisation of nature and human relations) and the growth fetish (the belief that any economy should increase the value of it’s exchanges and production to avoid crisis or disaster).
2 - As a concrete and voluntary process toward a just and ecologically sustainable society.
Serge Latouche emeritus professor of economy at the University of Paris.
'Society built on quality rather than on quantity, on cooperation rather than on competition... humanity liberation from economism for which social justice is the objective.'
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Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability.
http://www.cemus.uu.se/dokument/msd2010-2011/article%20for%2024th.pdf
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From Capabilities to De-growth: Toward A New Concept of Global Justice (July 2010)
http://www.mfj.gr.jp/web/sympo_20100710/pdf/Nakano-En-Txt-10-07.pdf
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De-growth: an electoral stake?
http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol3/vol3_no1_Latouche_degrowt...
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Le Monde
Why less should be so much more
Degrowth economics
http://mondediplo.com/2004/11/14latouche
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Would the West actually be happier with less? The world downscaled
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27/081.html
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Proceedings of the First International Conference on Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity
Paris, 18-19 April 2008
http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/appel/Degrowth%20Confere...

Professor Peter A. Victor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, and Gideon Rosenbluth, Department of Economics, U.B.C.
http://greenparty.ca/files/Peter%20Victor-No%20growth.pdf
This paper examines the feasibility of achieving full employment, elimination of poverty, reduction on greenhouse gases and fiscal balance in the absence of economic growth.
http://www.slideshare.net/instruw/peter-victor-managing-withouth-growth-...

nef report
Creating a new kind of economy is crucial if we want to tackle climate change and avoid the mounting social problems associated with the rise of economic inequality. The Great Transition provides the first comprehensive blueprint for building an economy based on stability, sustainability and equality.
http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Great_Transitio...

The thermodynamic roots of economics by Herman Daly
Important work about how the idea of entropy can be used in economics is still being ignored. Why? Because it challenges the most basic assumptions of growth-based economics.
http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/2010/11/08/the-thermodynamic-roots-of-e...
&
The Ecology of Growth by Nik Robins
New economic thinking is challenging traditional economic models, offering refreshing pathways out of the crash.
http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/2010/10/13/the-ecology-of-growth?utm_so...

• Do you suspect that the idea of perpetual economic growth on a finite planet is folly?
• Are you searching for ways to solve our profound social and environmental problems?
• Do you want to know how we can construct an economy that
(1) meets our needs without undermining the life-support systems of the planet and
(2) achieves sustainable and equitable well-being for all people?

This report brings together the inspirational ideas generated at the Steady State Economy Conference held in Leeds earlier this year. It provides a detailed description of the structures and policies that would be needed in an economy where the goal is "enough" instead of "more". The report has three main parts. Part One explains why economic growth is no longer an appropriate goal for wealthy countries like the UK and describes the desirable alternative - a steady state economy. Part Two discusses policy proposals in ten key areas needed to achieve a steady state economy. Proposals include policies to limit resource use, reduce income inequality, reform the monetary system, improve the way we measure progress, secure full employment, and change consumer behaviour. Finally, Part Three provides a blueprint for moving boldly from ideas to action.
http://steadystate.org/enough-is-enough/

For nearly a decade, the Centre for Well-being at the new economics foundation (nef) has been calling for governments to measure people's wellbeing and to recognise that the economy - and economic growth in particular - is only ever a means to an end. Now there is growing interest in measuring and using wellbeing for policy amongst governments and official bodies in the UK, France, the European Union, the United Nations and the OECD. This report presents nef's contribution to the current debate about how wellbeing can be measured and how the data can be used to bring about more effective policy-making. In particular it suggests the ONS and other relevant government bodies should: (1) adopt a framework for understanding progress in terms of three spheres and the relationships between them: the goal of wellbeing for all, sustainable use of environmental resources, and the human systems that mediate between the two; (2) use the dynamic model of wellbeing to underpin the development of new wellbeing indicators; and (3) incorporate five questions that measure wellbeing subjectively within the Integrated Household Survey. They also suggest the need to develop: a headline index of human wellbeing based on these subjective measures, reported as the percentage of people who are flourishing; an indicator of wellbeing inequality – a Gini co-efficient of wellbeing; a set of objective indicators measuring the Drivers of Wellbeing (DoW); and eventually a broader set of subjective wellbeing indicators to fully capture the lived experience of people in the UK.
http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Measuring_our_p...
http://www.ons.gov.uk/well-being/wellbeing/index.html

February 2011 newsletter
http://steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/SteadyStater_vol4_iss1.pdf
Contains links to interesting papers: including
Energetic Limits to Economic Growth
http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/resources/Davidson.pdf

The human population and economy have grown exponentially and now have impacts on climate, ecosystem processes, and biodiversity far
exceeding those of any other species. Like all organisms, humans are subject to natural laws and are limited by energy and other resources. In
this article, we use a macroecological approach to integrate perspectives of physics, ecology, and economics with an analysis of extensive global
data to show how energy imposes fundamental constraints on economic growth and development. We demonstrate a positive scaling relationship
between per capita energy use and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) both across nations and within nations over time. Other indicators of
socioeconomic status and ecological impact are correlated with energy use and GDP. We estimate global energy consumption for alternative future
scenarios of population growth and standards of living. Large amounts of energy will be required to fuel economic growth, increase standards of
living, and lift developing nations out of poverty.
http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/resources/Davidson.pdf