Agenda for a New Economy: David C Korten: Books

Posted on February 14, 2009


Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Today’s economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. However, as David Korten shows, the steps being taken to address it do nothing to deal with the reality of a failed economic system. It’s like treating cancer with a bandage. Korten identifies the deeper sources of the failure: Wall Street institutions that have perfected the art of creating “wealth” without producing anything of real value: phantom wealth. Our hope lies not with Wall Street, Korten argues, but with Main Street, which creates real wealth from real resources to meet real needs. He outlines an agenda to create a new economy– locally based, community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits. It will require changes to how we measure economic success, organize our financial system, even the very way we create money, an agenda Korten summarizes in his version of the economic address to the nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.

About the Author
David Korten is president and founder of the People-Centered Development Forum, and serves as a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He is an associate of the International Forum on Globalization and a member of the Club of Rome. He holds MBA and PhD degrees from the Stanford Graduate school of Business and is a former faculty member of the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He was previously a Ford Foundation project specialist in Manila and an Asia Regional Advisor on Development Management for the US Agency for International Development. David has authored numerous books, including the bestselling titles The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, When Corporations Rule the World, and The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism. He is a regular guest on talk radio and television and a popular speaker at conferences around the world.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Visionary,

By To Be Simple - See all my reviews

  

“Agenda for a New Economy,” by David Korten is a valuable discussion of how there needs to be paradigm shift in the way we view Wall Street and the structure of the overall economy. Korten builds upon some of the major themes of his previous book, “The Great Turning,” in calling for an economic system that measures wealth less on the fiat currency system and more on families, communities, healthy children, and environmental health. There has been plenty written about the corruption of Wall Street and the inequality the system breeds, but very little has been offered in the way of giving folks a blueprint of sorts for an alternative system that values people over an unstable monetary system. That is, until now.

One of the more interesting points in the book is the discussion of the nature of wealth. Korten refers to the current measure of wealth as “phantom wealth,’ in which he lays out a case for its replacement with “real wealth.” He makes this case quite well. Korten even goes so far as to call for the elimination of Wall Street. This idea will likely shock most readers. The immediate response is to think, “This guy is off his rocker! He must be naïve. Can that really happen?” Korten, a former business professor at Harvard, is no lightweight when it comes to economic theory. In “Agenda for a New Economy” Korten harkens back to the original ideas espoused by the father capitalism, Adam Smith. What we have now is not the same type of market system envisioned by Smith. Adam Smith would be shocked at all the tinkering and smoke and mirrors engrained in the current system. Korten elaborates on the many virtues of getting back to the basics of a market economy and true capitalism. He terms his vision as the replacing of Wall Street with “Main Street.”

Korten gives a loose blueprint for restoring the economy and making it viable long-term. His vision is focused squarely on the development and nurturing of families and communities as opposed to the nurturing of the ultra-wealthy and corrupt. In the process, the environment and public health will be strengthened to a degree never before seen. It is a bold vision that some people may scoff at as being unrealistic, but Korten, no stranger to development, has seen first-hand around the world how his ideas can be put into place. He is now challenging readers to boldly start thinking about and discussing where to go from here.

“Agenda for a New Economy” should be read by every policy maker and citizen in this country. It is filled with sound examples, historical context, and economic theory. It explains the nature of the sputtering engine powering the economy and what needs to be done to radically rebuild the engine. I urge everyone to read this book and tell everyone you know to read it. You may not agree with every single idea in this book, but I guarantee that you will think hard about every idea. I think that was the intent of Korten, and to that extent this book is a complete success.
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