COMMON WEALTH: ECONOMICS FOR A CROWDED PLANET

The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs’s new book is that we need a new economic paradigm: global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science-based. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity. New forms of politics – built on scientific networks, corporate social responsibility and globally agreed goals – will replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments will become much weaker actors.