Monthly Archives: July 2011

History, Movements, and Economic Transformation: Part 1

In this clip, the first in a series of segments from an extensive and wide-ranging interview, I talk about my political background and previous work, before moving on to discuss the effects of systemic inequality in the distribution of wealth, and the real sources of productive value in the knowledge economy (as explored in my book with Lew Daly, Unjust Deserts):


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Posted in Audio and Video, Movements, History, Economic Power and Transformation: A Conversation with Gar Alperovitz | Comments closed

The New-Economy Movement

(This article first appeared in the  June 13, 2011 edition of The Nation and was first published online here)

The idea that we need a “new economy”—that the entire economic system must be radically restructured if critical social and environmental goals are to be met—runs directly counter to the American creed that capitalism as we know it is the best, and only possible, option. Over the past few decades, however, a deepening sense of the profound ecological challenges facing the planet and growing despair at the inability of traditional politics to address economic failings have fueled an extraordinary amount of experimentation by activists, economists and socially minded business leaders. Most of the projects, ideas and research efforts have gained traction slowly and with little notice. But in the wake of the financial crisis, they have proliferated and earned a surprising amount of support—and not only among the usual suspects on the left. As the threat of a global climate crisis grows increasingly dire and the nation sinks deeper into an economic slump for which conventional wisdom offers no adequate remedies, more and more Americans are coming to realize that it is time to begin defining, demanding and organizing to build a new-economy movement.

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