A Declaration of Independence from Wall Street

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Discussion Guide

•  Offers bold economic reforms that attack the underlying cause of the current economic collapse, not just its symptoms

• A radical but achievable program that restores and builds on the fundamental strengths of the American economy

  C-Span Book TV's "Top Nonfiction Authors and Books."

• Agenda for a New Economy was launched on January 23, 2009, just after the Obama inauguration, at a national theological conference sponsored by the historic Trinity Church, located in the heart of Wall Street. See my report and related interviews on PBS NOW with David Broncaccio and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales. See also the presentation at Elliot Bay Books discussing the background and message of Agenda featured on C-Span 2 Book TV "Top Nonfiction Authors and Books."

  Today’s economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression.  However, as David Korten shows, the steps being taken to address it – including pouring trillions of dollars into bailouts for the Wall Street institutions that created the mess – do nothing to deal with the reality of a failed economic system. It’s like treating cancer with band aids. And the financial collapse now in the public spotlight is only the tip of the iceberg.  The system’s social and environmental failures may ultimately be even more destructive. 

  Korten identifies the deeper sources of the failure: Wall Street institutions that have perfected the art of creating phantom “wealth” without producing anything of real value.  Its major players engage in speculative trading, buy into asset bubbles, create debt pyramids, and engage in predatory lending practices. Their seeming success created an economic mirage that led us to believe the economy was expanding exponentially, even as our economic, social, and natural capital eroded and most people struggled ever harder to make ends meet.   

  What Others Are Saying About Agenda for a New Economy

  Endorsements from Notable Figures A View from Kenya Bold Proposal for a New Economy" a review by John Cavanangh Review by Steven Chapman Review by Gene Marshall The story behind the book The story from the perspective of Berrett-Koehler Publishers

  Our hope lies not with Wall Street, Korten argues, but with Main Street, which creates real wealth from real resources to meet real needs. He outlines an agenda to liberate the latent entrepreneurial energies of Main Street from Wall Street’s deadly grip and bring into being a new economy—locally based, community-oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits. It will require courageous and imaginative changes to how we measure economic success, organize our financial system, even the very way we create money. Korten outlines a challenging, but practical agenda summarized at the end of the book in his version of the economic address to the nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.

  Korten’s intention is not to offer final answers, but rather to provoke discussion of options that powerful interests prefer not be mentioned. These interests devised the system that has brought us to the brink of ruin. It’s time to turn away from the Wall Street system of phantom wealth and return to an economy firmly rooted in the long-term health of people and the planet.

   

  2nd Edition Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments
  Prologue: A Question of Values

  PART I: The Case for a New Economy

    1.  Looking Upstream
    2.  Modern Alchemists and the Sport of Moneymaking
    3.  A Real-Market Alternative
    4.  More Than Tinkering at the Margins

  PART II: The Case for Replacing Wall Street

    5.  What Wall Street Really Wants
    6.  Buccaneers and Privateers
    7.  The High Cost of Phantom Wealth
    8.  The End of Empire
    9.   Greed Is Not a Virtue; Sharing Is Not a Sin 

  PART III: A Living Economy Vision

  10.  What People Really Want
  11.  At Home on a Living Earth
  12.  New Vision, New Priorities

  PART IV: A Living-Economy Agenda 

  13.  Seven Points of Intervention
  14.  What About My...? 
  15.  A Presidential Declaration of Independence from Wall Street I Hope I May One Day Hear

  PART V: Navigating Uncharted Waters 

  16  When the People Lead, the Leaders Will Follow
  17.  A Visionary President Meets Realpolitik
  18.  Change the Story, Change the Future
  19. Learning to Live, Living to Learn

  Epilogue: The View from 2084

  Notes
  Index
  About the Author