Rethinking Macroeconomics for Sustainability

The world is caught in the deepest financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic crisis is not the result of what could be called a rare probability event ('a perfect storm') but rather the unavoidable outcome of a neoliberal economic paradigm that dominated policy-making since the early eighties, one that has come to view the natural resource base as simply another asset to be exploited. At the same time, we are trapped in a vicious environmental predicament. We are not only threatened by stagnation, deflation, unemployment and poverty - our world is also menaced by climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, polluted aquifers and a man-made event of mass extinction. In Rethinking Macroeconomics for Sustainability, Nadal argues that macroeconomic theory and policymaking has to date barely addressed vital environmental issues. Detailing the history, debates and controversies in this area, Nadal calls for a radical re-think in how we should approach saving our planet at a global economic level, offering specific policy recommendations - from reforming the international trade regime to financing global environmental stewardship. All this is based on the incontrovertible premise that monetary and fiscal policies are as important for environmental stewardship as they are for growth and prosperity.