Mindful Economics

Does all this talk about subprime mortgages and collateralized bonds make you dizzy? Are you worried about the economy but struggling to understand it? Well, this book is for you. Subtitled “How the U.S. Economy Works, Why It Matters and How It Could Be Different,” it’s written in lucid prose meant for lay readers. Mindful Economics is an excellent primer on how corporate capitalism got where it is now—dangerously unstable, fundamentally unsustainable and grossly unequal in its distribution of wealth—and what we need to do to change it. Capitalism, Magnuson argues, is an undemocratic system run by wealthy elites that has only two goals, profit and growth, both of which are incompatible with planetary health and well-being. If we want to survive, we need to live simply, build nonprofit local economic institutions, and trade the richness of community for shallow consumerism.