The End of Business as Usual

摘要

In February 2013, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City was involved in a furious row over the growth of homelessness in the city; while he claimed that homelessness had not risen significantly, the statistics proved otherwise. And although the number of homeless people in London and Paris may be lower than in New York, the statistics also show that there are far more down-and-outs than five years ago. What has happened to so-called advanced capitalist countries that they cannot provide for their citizens? Will the rich countries regain their previous levels of prosperity and growth, and what, if any, are the implications for the developing world? Was the long boom of the new century ever sustainable, based as it (apparently) was on environmental degradation and growing social and economic inequality? As Britain's very own Mrs Windsor famously asked in 2011, why did the economics profession not foresee catastrophe ahead?