Economics for a New Century

By Ann Lee
Lee is an economics professor at NYU
and a former investment banker and bond trader.
Posted: March 30, 2010 to Huffington Post

With personal and national debt reaching record levels and unemployment at its most severe since the Great Depression, now may be the opportunity to abandon growth economics and come up with economic models for shrinking economies. Why not consider doing more with less and returning more to the environment than taking from it? Today, more energy is consumed on a daily basis in New York City alone than in the entire African continent. U.S. per capita energy consumption is multiples of that of India and China, and if we let those two countries catch up to our levels, the world will implode.

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The U.S. needs to get religion in the form of a new economic ideology to realign our priorities. Instead of tracking growth statistics and other economic data, we can start by figuring out a way to measure and report such things as human dignity, creativity, and degrees of freedom, and reward behavior that enhances those values we cherish. It does not make sense that most artists, teachers, and doctors - those who deliver the greatest value to society - are the least paid individuals, while investment bankers and speculators who earn the most amount of money are adding minimal value to society at best, and at worst, destroying value. We ought to find the political will to start funding research in universities that support a new way of thinking about economics.