[ NOTE: This is a chapter excerpt from David Houle’s latest book, the first of an eBook trilogy entitled “Moving to a Finite Earth Economy – Crew Manual”. The subtitle of the first eBook is the name of this chapter, The Three Economies. All three books are to be priced at $2.99. Book 1 is […]
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We are pleased to announce the publication of The Sarasota Institute’s Whitepaper #1, The Big Issues. It covers all 10 of the topics we believe are crucial for understanding and shaping the century. Here are some questions that we discuss within: When was the last time you heard anything radical about how to reform democracy? Do […]
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The developed countries of the world are in transition from economies based upon ownership to ones increasingly based upon rental or access. As much as any other trend, this will transform economics, consumption and how we live. The concept of ownership is deeply embedded in economic thought, policy and practice and has been for centuries. […]
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Just after the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States I had many conversations with colleagues and friends. Regardless of people’s political persuasion, most expressed some confusion about the future direction of global politics given the unusual nature of Trump as a candidate. Was he, is he, crazy like a fox, […]
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(Part IV of a series on the future of banking and finance) I began this series of articles on 21st Century Finance by comparing and contrasting the legacy finance industry put in place in the 19th and 20th centuries with the one that is emerging now. Hint: new technology and new ways of using […]
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) needs to be either re-thought, or scrapped as a measure of economy. Why? For several reasons, including: It measures output, not economy, and with grave unintended consequences It measures output domestically, and this is no longer a useful measure GDP Measures Output, Not Economy The whole point of both […]
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This is a time when we need fresh thinking on how to organize our society to a better job of serving our people. There are too many citizens who have lost faith in our government, in big business, and our other institutions. They have seen President Trump call our media “dishonest,” our justice system […]
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(Part III of a series on the future of banking and finance) By now I hope to have convinced you in Part I and Part II of this series on 21st Century Finance, that things are never going to be the same. My thesis is that new technologies (discussed extensively in Part I) have the […]
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(Part II of a series on the future of banking and finance) This column follows my overview comparing 21st Century Finance vs. 20th Century Finance. Hopefully I convinced you that banking and finance are likely never to see the same profit margins as in previous decades and that many of the business lines are […]
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(Part I of a series on the future of banking and finance) Finance’s 20th century business lines – their go-to money makers – are all in jeopardy of being destroyed. Primarily this is due to finance’s blatant disregard for its customers’ actual needs. This is the result of the industry’s traditional 40%+ profit margins that […]
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