Doughnut Economics

A pretty fun, inspiring survey of progressive economics. Not sure if this would land much with non-economists, but - if you've ever swum around econ departments - this was quite fun.

Some things I want to keep in mind and dig deeper into:
- The economics of open source software
- Coops (especially software coops)
- Any post-capitalist stuff
- Any degrowth stuff
- That new Acemoglu book
- Those people 3D printing stuff in sub-Saharan Africa; and the general idea of 3D printing as a leapfrog similar to mPesa?

I enjoyed the cultural histories of economics, as a field. e.g. The eventual caricature of “homo economicus”. The constant criticisms/caveats that kinda get forgotten or caricatured away (especially by libertarians, DO NOT GET ME STARTED - I feel so much pain when Republicans/libertarians mansplain economics to me when they clearly didn't get past Econ 102).

Also enjoyed the emphasis on the power of images. This aligns with this great course I took on data visualization. The visual cortex!! IT IS A VERY POWERFUL SHORTCUT TO THE BRAIN.

Stuff I didn't care for:
- This felt quite fluffy (and Oxfamy!) and, ahem, not super rigorous. It was mostly a cri de ceour/impassioned blog post. That's fine, of course, but it did make me miss mainstream econ academia, if only for its stuffy Lagrangians and econometrics.
- I was pretty turned off by the self-promoting vibe, e.g. “I was talking to [random person] about my great idea, Doughnut Economics, and everybody clapped”. It's like... okay.

One of the most frustrating books I have ever read.

Baby's first Econ book

Our economy is stuck on models and graphs that were created ages ago, when straightforward capitalism and endless growth were the only goal we could imagine. But now we know more, we know that excessive growth depletes and destroys our planet´s natural resources, and we know that countries don´t need to experience extreme inequalities to climb towards success. Raworth understands the power these outdated models still have on today´s world of finance and politics, and proposes new models instead that are guidelines on how to rethink, rebuild and escape the social and environmental traps we have landed in. Raworth draws on [a:Donella H. Meadows 307638 Donella H. Meadows https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1592011479p2/307638.jpg]´s system thinking and suggests we should simply reset the goals instead of tweaking the parameters of our economy. GDP is an outdated model of measuring the success of a nation. We need to take human, cultural and environemtal values into account as well. The book ends on a fascinating and divisive debate: Is green growth possible or do we need degrowth in order to stabilize our world, to build an economy with regenerative and distributive principles. What would a society on a growth-plateau look like? Even if we measure growth with non-monetary values, would humanity be satisfied without a constant striving to go higher, achieve more?[a:Mazzucato Mariana 19431854 Mazzucato Mariana https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is also frequently quoted, and if I had a vote I´d make these women redesign the global economy.

Excellent, a new approach to economics that leads with an environmental consciousness. A political book.