${Html.ActionLink("My MarketWatch", "index", new { controller = "composite", area = "section", page = "my" })} | !{Html.ActionLink("Sign out", "LogOff", new { area = "User", controller = "Account" }, new { id = "signOutLink" })}
Welcome, ${UserDisplayName}
Log in
Become a MarketWatch member today
Paul B. Farrell Archives | Email alerts
March 20, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Want to see how this story relates to your portfolio?
Just add items to create a portfolio now:
Create Portfolio or Cancel Already have a portfolio? Log In
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) "” "It's about revolution," warns Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group, in his new book "Screw Business as Usual," a declaration of war against today's out-of-control capitalism.
Branson's at war, on the attack. His command center is the Carbon War Room where message becomes action, rallying an army of entrepreneurs into what I see becoming a game-changing New No-Growth Capitalism.
EccoRobot is built to mimic the human form with hopes that it will produce human-like cognitive features. Ben Rooney reports from the InnoRobo conference in France.
"My message is a simple one: business as usual isn't working "¦ business as usual is wrecking this planet "¦ Resources are being used up; the air, the sea, the land are all heavily polluted ... The poor are getting poorer "¦ Many are dying of starvation or because they can't afford a dollar a day for lifesaving medicine."
Sounds like a profile of Ike, Patton and MacArthur, generals who successfully waged a near-impossible war. The world needs more like them to wage this war, "turn capitalism upside down-to shift our values from an exclusive focus on profit to also caring for people, communities and the planet."
Yes, capitalism is wrecking the planet "¦ is using up resources "¦ creating poverty, starvation, disease "¦ epidemics, inequality, climate failure "¦ and yes, warfare "¦ remember the Pentagon prediction that by 2020, the planet's "carrying capacity" will be so drastically compromised that they're already planning military defense systems for the coming "all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies." Yes, by 2020.
The Carbon War Room is the command center for the counteroffensive: But they better act fast. As economist Bill McKibben wrote in Foreign Policy, it "might already be too late." Former Greenpeace CEO Paul Gilding went further in "The Great Disruption": "It's time to stop worrying about climate change "¦ brace for impact."
Why? Population growth is out of control, headed for 10 billion by 2050, predicts the United Nations. And Jeremy Grantham, whose firm manages $100 billion, warns the planet can't feed 10 billion. Still, global leaders turn a blind's eye to the consequences, ignore this hot button issue to our peril.
Yes, Branson's heard all these warnings. But his optimism is as infectious as his smile. He senses a new global dawn sweeping the world, a "vibrant and definite sea change from the way business was always done, when financial profit was a driving force."
He hears more and more people openly shouting "screw business as usual." More accurately: Screw capitalism. It is "time to start caring for people, communities and the planet," caring for someone other than just their shareholders and their insiders. Now that shift would indeed be a historic game-changer.
In planning ahead, we do need Branson's sea change, a totally new way of thinking and a dramatically new economic system that focuses on three goals for the next generation outlined in our earlier "Save the World" manifesto, goals that parallel Branson's. Goals that today's capitalists are certain to fight, just as they've been fighting to kill all reform efforts since the 2008 crash.
But after the coming global economic collapse these essential goals will define the New No-Growth Capitalism, if the planet is to survive:
Does it support the prosperity of all economic classes worldwide?
Will it help create a sustainable planet for the future generations, in 2050 and beyond?
Will our leaders encourage stabilization of the world's population?
Classical economics is fatally flawed, driven by Perpetual Growth mind-set. We will self-destruct unless we "turn capitalism upside down "¦ shift our values."
Get it? The central hypothesis of today's economists "” all of them from Bernanke's Fed staff, the World Bank, IMF, CBO and White House economic advisors, to economists in Wall Street banks, think tank and academia "” is their unquestioned acceptance of the core dogma of Perpetual Growth. Stick to that and America, the planet and civilization will all crash.
Jeremy Lin's star not fading off court
Apple becomes a portfolio must-have stock
Inflation beating deflation
Asia markets slide as resource stocks decline
Buying your way into Canada may get pricier
Buying your way into Canada may get pricier
Inflation beating deflation
Don't be fooled by the money illusion
Tech in Latin America: A consumer-driven market
Neighborhoods For Multiple Generations
Asia Week Ahead: Are China Banks' Profits Growing?
How to Wait For an iPad
How To Hedge the Market's Pending Poor Returns
Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The... Expand
Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The Millionaire Code," "The Winning Portfolio," "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing." Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He has a Juris Doctor and a Doctorate in Psychology. Collapse
On Canada
A costly way to get to Canada may get pricier
Writing on the Wall
Bloomberg's crony capitalism
Tech Tales
Read Full Article »