I’m not sure I have anything particularly insightful to say about it, but I wanted to link to this essay by ecological economist Herman Daly on a steady state economy versus what he calls a “failed growth” one. In the scramble to give a Keynesian boost to our economy the assumption that continued growth is good has gone largely unchallenged. But longer term issues like climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels call that into question. I’m also not sure if the model Daly proposes is itself viable, and in particular I wonder whether a turn to localist and protectionist economics would be compatible with rising living standards for people in the poorest parts of the world, but I think it’s good to consider alternatives.

I blogged about Daly and John Cobb’s book For the Common Good, which covers some of the same ground, here.