People First Economics

The rising tide of populist outrage over the recent economic crisis fuels a series of essays, diatribes and manifestos in this compendium of left-wing economic alternatives. Editors Ransom and Baird have brought together journalists, economists, politicians and intellectuals to take the global capitalist market to task for everything from foreclosures and national economic collapse to global warming. Naomi Klein replays scenes of popular unrest in Iceland and Argentina; master financier Tarek El Diwany explains the history of interest and argues against usury; and, in case the stakes were unclear, Bolivia's President Evo Morales offers a 10-point plan for saving the markets and humanity. Ann Pettifor, a fellow at the New Economics Foundation, best sums up the ideological thread that unites the book when she quotes a 1944 British Labour Party tract saying that finance must be returned to its role as the intelligent servant of the community, not its stupid master. If ever these criticisms were to be taken seriously, now would be the time, and voices such as Noam Chomsky's and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich's lend the volume plenty of heft. (Jan.)