Herman Daly

Superlatives swirl around Herman Daly. He has received numerous significant awards (e.g., the Right Livelihood Award and the NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award) that recognize the value of his ideas for making this world a better place. For decades, he has been an inspiration to students of economics and public policy — how often do you see students lining up at the end of the semester to have their professor sign their textbooks?

Over his career, Herman has taken a courageous stance, swimming upstream against the currents of conventional economic thought. Not content to bequeath his ideas on economic development solely to the academic realm, he did time at the World Bank to change policies in the real world. He also has written books that are popular with citizens around the world.

It’s a rare combination indeed to have keen insight, kindness, razor-sharp analytical skill, wit, amazing capacity for work, humility, and an uncanny way with words all rolled up into one human being. It’s a good thing, too — the planet needs Herman Daly. His books, lectures, papers, and essays (including the ones he writes for this blog!) are filled with ingredients for cooking up a better economy and better lives.

Gulliver's Travels

Growthism: its Ecological, Economic and Ethical Limits

We believe that growth is the costless, win-win solution to all problems, or at least the necessary precondition for any solution. This is growthism.

March 28, 2019

Karl Marx grave

Do Red and Green Mix?

Ecosocialism aspires to be egalitarian and ecologically sustainable. But nothing is said in this essay about proper limits to the range of inequality in the distribution of income and wealth.

February 1, 2019

Society

Thoughts on Pope Francis’ Laudato Si

Laudato Si is already receiving both strong support and resistance. The resistance testifies to the radical nature of Francis’ renewal of the basic doctrine of the Earth and cosmos as God’s Creation.

March 1, 2017

What is Wrong with a Zero Interest Rate?

What is wrong with a zero interest rate?

September 17, 2015

Would the Steady-State Economy Be a Miracle?

Many people think that advocating a steady-state economy is like wishing for a miracle. I understand their reasoning and take their point—in the present era of growthism it does seem rather like advocating a miracle.

August 7, 2015

Economics for a Full World

Because of the exponential economic growth since World War II, we now live in a full world, but we still behave as if it were empty, with ample space and resources for the indefinite future.

June 18, 2015

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