Sharks are eating the whales - Mint Magazine Sharks are eating the whales – The Mint MagazineThe Mint Magazine Published by Promoting Economic PluralismAlexander Kozul-Wright
Ravenous – Henry Dimbleby, Profile Books (2023) Occasionally, economists come up with good ideas. A ‘policy trilemma’ states that, at any given time, governments can only achieve two of three competing goals. Owing to mutual exclusivity, one of the sovereign’s aims must be dropped. The UK is currently facing a policy trilemma – to make food cheaply
The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf, John Murray Publishers (2015) As its name suggests, The Invention of Nature is a puzzling book. Nature isn’t invented, it just is. Not quite, according to Andrea Wulf. She contends that the idea of nature was conceived by the pre-eminent Prussian polymath Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859). Though obsessed with scientific measurement, Humboldt bolted
The Politics of Time - Mint Magazine Time of your life – The Mint MagazineThe Mint Magazine From Promoting Economic PluralismAlexander Kozul-Wright
Automation and the Future of Work - Aaron Benavav, Verso Books (2020) & The AI Economy - Roger Bootle, John Murray Press (2019) These books review a singular feature of modern economies – workers are competing with ever more advanced machines. Both authors also question the idea that technological unemployment can be addressed by a Universal Basic Income (UBI). The advent of Chat GPT sparked a media frenzy around two inter-related questions – does artificial
Wilding – Isabella Tree, Picador (2018) & Regenesis – George Monbiot, Penguin Random House (2022) At their core, these two books reach a similarly stark conclusion. Our diets, and the farming practices which enable them, need a dramatic make-over. Both authors set out their own transformative visions for ecologically sustainable food production. Wilding, by Isabella Tree, describes a pioneering project to rewild a 3500-acre manor
War in Ukraine – Medea Benjamin & Nicolas Davies, OR Books (2022) Benjamin and Davies’ concise book offers an analysis of the war’s historical backdrop. In turn, it questions the prevailing Western narrative that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is little more than a conflict between liberal democracy and Vladimir Putin. The authors start by outlining the “frozen and unresolved” nature