Simon Combes: The Growth Trap, Gebunden

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This book proposes a radical rethink of how we fund our economy. Rather than disentangling public and corporate finance, this book shows how the two are forced to feed a never-ending force: growth. By re-visiting how money is created in our economy, the book proposes a new way of funding the economy using interest-free money creation.

Economic evaluation techniques like Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) reinforce the idea that to receive funding, a project need to generate economic growth. However, this book argues that the priority of the economics discipline should be to illuminate resource allocation and scarcity and propose ways to make the economy self-sustainable, helping to avoid inflation and poverty. To do this, the book highlights that not all public needs---such as social housing or other non-profit services---require economic growth. It argues that by decoupling public funding from taxation and interest-based borrowing, governments could more effectively fund essential public services that do not need to be profitable, thereby freeing the public sector from the growth imperative imposed by the current financial system. With practical applications for sectors including healthcare, environmental policy and sustainability, the book's interdisciplinary approach -- incorporating insights from economics, finance, public policy, anthropology and more -- will be a valuable tool for scholars and practitioners in diverse fields.