The need for a new model of the economy

Been thinking this crurent economic crisis should be an opportunity in so many ways - not just in terms of using it as an opportunity to re-direct the economy in a more sustainable and renewable energy manner - a la 'Green New Deal' - see http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2009/05/guest-post-towards-green-new-deal.html - but equally, if not more fundamentally, to break with the dominance of neo-classical economics. While I've been writing and critiquing neo-classical economics for over 20 years for its limited focus (orthodox measures of GNP/GDP thus excluding non-monetised work and exchange, especially the gender labour in the domestic sphere, as well as of course the 'free' and unpriced 'gifts' of the ecosystem) and its promoition of 'economic growth' as a structural necessity for the economy (that is, the economy needs continual economic growth in order to stave off failure - impossible in a finite biophysical work, and undesirable in relation to human well-being), the recent 'Toxic textbooks' campaign http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=521557514&v=feed&story_fbid=82623368533#/group.php?gid=73911783278&ref=nf
has reminded me of the need for a deeper reform of not just how we re-organise the economy but how we understand what the economy is. Part of the point here is that neo-classical economics is a) as value-based and ideological as any alternative account of the economy - i.e. it is a form of political economy just like Marxism, green political economy etc. but b) its dominance 'crowds out' these competing models thus supressing pluralism, debate and contention - why would we assume that there is one model for the economy and how to understand and conceptualise it, when we wouldn't accept that there is one model or conceptualisation of the polity or society?

Post Celtic Tiger errata

Have just read Showcasing Globalisation?: The Political Economy of the Irish Republic http://www.amazon.com/Showcasing-Globalisation-Political-Economy-Republic/dp/0719069939 by Nicola Jo-Anne Smith on my way down on the train from Belfast to Dublin. Its a good source of empirical data and debates about the Irish economy in terms of whether it really is 'globalised' or merely 'internationalised' and actually concentrated in terms of trade to a couple of countries - US and the UK in particular. Its also a rather infuriating read - lots of 'on the one hand...but on the other...' and frustratingly fails to come down with any analtyically insightful or normatively interesting positions. It contests that Ireland is a 'competition state' (Irish-style) as maintained by critics of the neo-liberal CT model such as Peadar Kirby or Denis O'Hearn yet does not outline what a 'competition state' is and how it differs from a 'welfare' or 'developmental' one. It also offers the most torturous account of the persistence of inequality in Ireland but maintaining this is not a major issue given the rise in absolute wages for most and the provision of a (bare and increasinly thread-bare) social safety net. But perhaps most frustrating of al, and which to my mind, really undermines the book's contribution, is there is no discussion of the dynamics of globalised capitalism or indeed the character of irish capitalism. It is as if one can blightly discuss 'globalisation' without mentioning capitalism!
Nevertheless, despite my criticisms, it is a good start to the debate about the CT and more importnant the post-CT siotuaiton, not least in Smith's argument that both the 'Whittaker moment' in the 1950s (which heralded the end of DeValera-style protectionism) and the social partnership model of the late 1980s ( of the commonly held features which explains the CT 'take off') were borne out of crisis. Where is our 'green Whittaker now' and is there a green version of social partnerhsip and the need to use and respond to the current economic (and growing political) crisis by restructuring the state, economy and civil society in Ireland?

Greens fight BNP and get Joanna Lumley's backing

Joanna Lumley, fresh from shaming the Labour government into giving justice to the Gurkhas has come out in support of the Green Party and publicly backed Green MEP Caroline Lucas http://southeast.greenparty.org.uk/region/southeast/news/joanna-lumley-backs-caroline-lucass-campaign.html

It also looks as if theonly way to stop the BNP Leader, Nick Griffin, from getting elected to Europe is to back the Green Party's MEP candidate Peter Cranie http://www.stopnickgriffin.org.uk/sites/stopnickgriffin and www.greenparty.org.uk.

What's infuriating is the way the media are hyping the BNP up out of all proportion to their popular support - see article in Independent today http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-we-must-stop-exaggerating-the-threat-of-the-bnp-1690424.html.

Infuriating for us, i.e. the Greens, since we're way out-polling them yet do you think the press gives us the same coverage? I suppose violence and jackboots sell...Ho hum...