Donate Economics is the starting point of 21st century economics. It's the one donut you can actually have without it being bad for you because it's conceptual. So think of a donut the comb of the hole in the middle. The goal is to leave no one falling short on the essentials of life without health and education, housing and voice. But at the same time, don't overshoot that outer ring as we put so much pressure on the life support systems of our planetary home. We destroy the only known living planet in the universe.
It’s Ok To Be Angry About Capitalism is the title of the new book by the US politician Bernie Sanders. In it he castigates a system that he argues is fuelled by uncontrolled greed and rigged against ordinary people. He tells Tom Sutcliffe it’s time to reject an economic order and a political system that continues to benefit the super-rich, and fight for a democracy that recognises that economic rights are human rights.
The Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times Martin Wolf looks more closely at how and why the relationship between capitalism and democracy appears to be unravelling. But despite the failings – slowing growth, growing inequality and widespread popular disillusion – he argues in The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism that the relationship remains the best system for human flourishing.
But the economist Kate Raworth believes that mainstream economics has had its day. Its failure to predict and prevent financial crises, while allowing extreme poverty, inequality and environment degradation to persist, means its contributing to, not solving, societal unrest. She argues that her theory – Doughnut Economics – offers a new model for a green, fair and thriving global economy.
Producer: Katy Hickman