On growth

 
I have been planning to upload a post about an excellent article published by Chatham House since early October (and it is the end of November..,).  No excuses, just apologies.

The article seems dated (it focuses on Truss' 'mini budget'...) but in reality it is not at all.  It is excellent  for IB Economics students (both HL and SL).  It is why growth, the size of the pie, may not matter as much as the distribution of the pie and why focusing on growth rates may divert our attention from other more important metrics of our collective well-being and may be terribly misleading.  

This paragraph is revealing:

Looking at GDP growth alone, a highly unequal society, which is polluting and depleting its natural assets can – at least in the short-term – appear a success story. In fact, once GDP growth is accepted as a good thing in itself, it can be used to support other political agendas and interests. Faith in the ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ theory of growth can sugar-coat policies that marginalize other important elements of economic health such as fairness and resilience to shocks.

This short article is packed with links.  Many of these will help students increase the stock of real world examples they need to effectively discuss or evaluate in Paper 1, part (b), essays.  All these links of course will help them appreciate the importance of this course no matter what they plan to study later in college. One of the most interesting links directed me to the Wellbeing Economy Governments site.

The article is titled  'Why it is time to change the narrative around growth' and can be found here.