Fred Harrison makes several significant arguments, stating that modern economic processes lead to wealth destruction rather than wealth creation and that a new economic order is needed because of the current crisis of the global economy. Importantly, the report recommends an alternative to capitalist rent extraction. This would be a new approach to land rent based on the ideas developed by David Ricardo.
The author argues that mainstream economics – both as an academic discipline and as a set of principles guiding public policy – is flawed and requires a fundamental rethink. The author proposes the notion of ‘economics of civilisation’ as a conceptual and practical resource to renew the art of statecraft at the service of a global economy capable of producing wealth in ways that are socially and ecologically just and viable.
Fred Harrison (born 1944) is a British author, economic commentator and corporate policy advisor, he is Research Director of the London-based Land Research Trust. He is notable for his stances on land reform and belief that an over reliance on land, property and mortgage weakens economic structures and makes companies vulnerable to economic collapse. His first book, The Power in the Land (1983), predicted the economic crisis of 1992. He followed this with a 10-year forecast (published in The Chaos Makers [1997]) that a global financial crisis would be triggered when house prices peaked in 2007.
This is the fourth of a number of reports to be published in the coming months, which include themes like: global civil society; the Silk Order; foreign intervention and economic development; the role of pensions; and long-term trends.
