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Talking Economics Bulletin - April 2006 The Talking Economics Bulletin consists
of news and views on associative economics, including short extracts
from Associative Economics Monthly (which is available electronically
for £1 an issue at www.cfae.biz/aem
or in a hard copy format - tel (UK) 01227 738207).
1) EDITORIAL FROM ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS MONTHLY - APRIL 06, According to the British Economist, John Kay, it is only within the last 20 years that the term corporate governance, previously "an esoteric branch of commercial law" has come into wide circulation. Yet today few questions can be more crucial than the one which asks by what logic the corporation is governed: whether, for example, the entrepreneur is sovereign or subjugate to the investor's financial power. While some, like Milton Friedman, believe the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, others ask if this is the sole purpose of company strategy or an outcome of its real aim: to provide a service to the community at large, including its customers who are only one among several of its stakeholders. John Mackey in Putting Customers Ahead of Investors shares his experience of creating an $8B company with 36,000 employees by doing just that. The Rare Albion column, Profits and Ownership, champions the stock corporation, with the proviso that a simple but crucial distinction needs to be made between voting and pecuniary rights. Signs of the Times offers evidence of the increasingly recognition of Rudolf Steiner's contribution to economics. Of Profits and Principles consists of two extracts from Steiner's work, one shows how the "accident of the market• is done away with, in favour of a reasoned correspondence between production and consumption mediated by human beings. In the other, a stand is taken on the principle of association rather than that of companies, a perplexing concept that the article endeavours to explain. Avinash Persaud and John Plender argue that a moral compass is needed in business and finance ethics. D'Arcy MacKenzie shares his understanding of associative economics by asking how the shift is to be made from preoccupation with owningcapital to asking who actually needs to put it to use.
2) EVENTS IN LONDON, UK: 8 April, 2006 - Associative Economics and Rudolf Steiner's Thinking 1.30-4.30pm Room S315, St Clements Building, at the London School of Economics, England. A presentation in association with The Network Project contact: Rosamund Stock, r.e.stock@lse.ac.uk 28 Apr, 19 May, 9 Jun 2006 The Metamorphosis of Capitalism - An introductory course in associative economics. Fridays, 2-5 pm, booking only (Venue below) 3x3x3 - An opportunity to study Rudolf Steiner's Economics Course (Come occasionally or sign for the whole course) Fridays, 7.15 - 9.15 pm (Venue below) Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT London IN STROUD, UK: IN HOLLAND AND NORWAY: Details from: mail@cfae.biz IN DORNACH, SWITZERLAND: Events at
the Goetheanum, Dornach, Basel, Switzerland,
3) THE TRIAL OF TAXATION
4) ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS AND RUDOLF STEINER'S THINKING - A presentation by Arthur Edwards in
association with The Network Project at the London School of Economics,
8 April, 2006, 1.30-4.30pm Room S315, St Clements Building. This
presentation, with a discussion afterwards, will serve as an introduction
to associative economics, an approach initiated by Rudolf Steiner
through various publications in the early 20th century but especially
through a course of lectures given in 1922. Best known as a philosopher
and pioneering thinker, whose work has led to innovative new approaches
in education, farming and medicine (Waldorf Schools, Bio-dynamic
gardening and Weleda Pharmaceuticals), Rudolf Steiner is less well
known as for his economic insights. Indeed one might argue that
the unfamiliar nature of what he had to say, coupled with his emphasis
on employing a descriptive methodology, did not quite match the
20th century palate, schooled as it was to proceed from largely
conceptual starting points. Though economic life since the 1920s
has developed on a quite different basis from the one he indicated,
his observations about its increasingly global nature and the impossibility
of making headway on the basis of a nationalised outlook now seem
convincingly prescient. Crucially, his depiction of the articulated
nature of money, as dynamic bookkeeping, allows humanity to step
beyond gold into a world where individuals, together in association,
are able to manage economic life. 'Associative Economics Monthly', is available at www.cfae.biz/publications The associative approach to economics is based on the idea that economic life is the shared responsibility of every human being. Talking Economics is about making this responsibility conscious and finding ways to give it effect. www.talkingeconomics.com -- www.talkingeconomics.co.uk The Centre for Associative Economics, Forge House, The Green, Chartham, Canterbury, CT4 7JW, 01227 738207 |