ABSTRACT
The attitudes and structures of political and organisational management have caused an excessive focus on short-term results, and a superficial understanding of costs and risks, making systemic crises highly likely and vast in scope. Following the credit crisis and the consequent surge in sovereign debt as western governments took on the liabilities of the failed banking system, debate has raged between economists on ways out of the crisis. The dominant arguments come from the traditional camps. Neo-liberals favour cutting public spending sharply, releasing the private sector which, they argue, becomes 'crowded out' by high government borrowing and spending. Keynesians argue that borrowing is legitimate to sustain demand through difficult economic conditions, that cutting too sharply risks a double-dip recession. There is a tendency in much political discourse to regard all public sector initiatives as being an economic stimulus. Another energy-wasting distraction is the increasingly bitter partisan argument between proponents and detractors from the principal global warming theories.
