The Economics of Hope: Creating a Just and Sustainable Local Economy in the Shadow of a Globalized World

The Economics of Hope describes these looming dangers, tracing them not only to the dominant economic and political institutions responsible, but to the general attitudes and mindsets it calls corporatism. It is now clear that the integration of economics and environment demand common, coordinated solutions. To avoid catastrophe in the next few decades, America and the world will either solve both problems... or solve neither.

Clearly, a serious climate and inequality crisis reckoning is inevitable. Left unattended, the current system will crash. The book concludes with an optimistic solution path resting on the notion of Localism. A mindful return to less energy intensive lifestyles and economic structures offers the surest path to a sustainable and healthy environment with fulfilling social/political arrangements. Communities can be re-emphasized in a planned and humanistic manner that bypasses the perils posed by current corporatist economics and exploitative ecological practices. A resultant soft landing in the sustainable state will be far superior to anything the globalized corporate world, which caused the problems in the first place, can possibly achieve.