Dear Associates of CCMJ
REVISITING CCMJ RESOURCES
You may recall a memorable quotation from Moltmann.that stirred many of us in 2002 – ‘The neglect of economics is a wound in the side of the church.’ One of our associates, Fred Harrison, was an as an investigative journalist, economic consultant and in 2002 he also turned his attention to the failure of economic analysis and public policies. I append here the introduction to three of six essays in the journal ‘Geophilos’ of Autumn 2002. Let me know if you wish to see the full essay of any of the four authors
Debt Forgiveness and Redemption – Where do the Churches now Stand? Michael Hudson
DEBT CANCELLATION is high on the political agenda as charities campaign for countries that borrowed from Western banks — and then discovered that they could not repay the loans. But write-offs are not a sufficient response to indebtedness, argues Dr Hudson, who calls for reforms guided by an understanding of formative practices that reach back to the ancient Near East.
Part of the solution entails the revival of religions in a new form. Popular wisdom attributes the decline of religion to materialism. The modern attitude is that religion’s proper domain is spiritual and otherworldly. But by stressing altruism, religion holds back the invisible hand of self-seeking enterprise that, as the Deist moral philosopher Adam Smith argued, guides human effort to spur prosperity.
The author stresses that early religions protected debtors. One of the great achievements of the ancient Near East was that religion sanctified debt cancellations as a legal principle rather than enforcing the payment of rural debts even when these exceeded the ability to pay.
Today’s financially oriented economies undermine the ethic of mutual aid, social safety nets and policies that would alleviate the debt burden. This is the outcome of a 5,000-year process, in which the privatisation of the land, credit and industry has permitted creditors to assert their rights over the rest of society.
Dr. MICHAEL HUDSON, a former Wall Street analyst, is President of the New York-based Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends. This essay draws on the volume he recently co-edited, Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East.
The Covenant with God – The Jubilee & the Gospel to the Poor – Kenneth Jupp
IF SPIRITUAL RENEWAL is to take place, argues Kenneth Jupp, the Christian churches will have to recover their understanding of the theology of land — the central teaching of what was originally called the Old Covenant.
In September 2001, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster made headlines when he averred that Christianity was “nearly vanquished” in Britain, the Christian backdrop to social, economic, and political decisions having disappeared. The decline in respect for religion in general in the Western world corresponded with the rise of poverty during the Industrial Revolution. Churches are emptying, and the firm basis of Christian belief has given way to multiculturalism, and of Wealth humanism, with rights becoming more important than duties, pleasure more important than service, and compensation expected from courts of law for any of life’s adversities.
How Christianity may regain its role in Western society by making itself relevant to the needs of the millions of people who have not gained from the material riches that were made possible by the Industrial Revolution — is explored by the author. He believes that the social relevance of the churches is contingent on their regaining the mission defined by Jesus: representing the interests of the socially excluded, the impoverished people whose birthrights have been expunged by the privatisation of what were traditionally social property rights in land.
Sir KENNETH JUPP MC was a Judge in the English High Court for 15 years. He is the author of Stealing our Land (1997). He is a translator of Turgot’s The Formation and Distribution of Wealth.
The Sacred Rule How to Remove the Globe from Globalisation Fred Harrison
ACCORDING to this year’s UN Development Programme’s report, on present trends it will take 130 years before the world is free of hunger. On the current rate of progress, we will miss the target of halving the number of people in extreme poverty — defined as living on less than $1 a day — by 2015. This is not “progress”: it is a confession of institutionalised failure, argues Fred Harrison. But behind those failing institutions are doctrines that must be flawed, in some critical way. In short, our economic and political paradigm is directing us down a road that is a treadmill.
Globalisation is the catch phrase now used to summarise people’s dissatisfaction. It is generally taken to mean the greater integration of the world’s markets through free trade and the liberalisation of finance, and the deregulation of public utilities; its visible form is said to be the increasingly international reach of communications.
In fact, claims the author, globalisation is something more profound than the mere convergence of commercial organisation and electronic innovation. It is a process that originated four centuries ago in England, driven by an agenda that needs to be understood if we are to make sense of the failures that lead to people demonstrating on the streets when the leaders of the G8 meet, or when the IMF convenes a conference.
FRED HARRISON’s essay is based on a speech delivered at the Plater College, Oxford, Summer School conference on An Inter-faith Perspective on Globalisation in August 2002.
Sustainable Development: Definitions, Principles, Policies – Herman E. Daly
Dr. Daly considers two competing definitions of sustainability (utility-based versus throughput-based), and offers reasons for rejecting the former. The concept of development as currently understood (GDP growth led by global economic integration) is
reviewed in the context of its conflicts with sustainability, as well as with the premises of comparative advantage. He considers the more general necessity of introducing the concept of throughput into economic theory, noting the awkward consequences to both micro and macroeconomics of having ignored the concept. Some policy implications for sustainable development are considered which flow from a more adequate economic theory. These policies (ecological tax reform and/or cap and trade limits on throughput) are based on the principle of frugality first, rather than efficiency first.
As a concluding addendum, the author comments on the World Bank’s 2003 World Development Report, dedicated this year to the topic of sustainable development, and he notes points of agreement and difference with the ideas presented here.
HERMAN E. DALY is a professor at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, and co-author For the Common Good (1989). This essay was first presented as an invited Address to the World Bank on April 30, 2002 in Washington, DC.
Yours, Peter
