Live from Los Angeles!

I'm hoping to get some new writing done soon, but in the meantime here is a well done interview by Swati Pandey at Zócalo Public Square in Los Angeles that gets at some of the bigger themes that I address in my book.

There's a lot to say these days about the state of things. As I note in this interview, the reason we are not seeing a real economic recovery (with better jobs and other future prospects) is because economic growth in a shopping-dominated economy in the 21st century is ultimately destabilizing. On many different fronts – economic, environmental, political – we are testing the limits of our world, one that is highly dependent on growth, consumption, cheap resources, and optimized global trade. LA's deep dependence on shipping and logistics, for example, reflects this trend: America's empire is foundering not for lack of technological or military might, but because it is increasingly trapped within its own economic model, one that is closely tied to globalization (which has its own troubles) and China's growing power.

Here's an excerpt:

"...We’re seeing a breakdown in our chosen economic model, a confluence of spending, shipping, and shopping where roughly 70 percent of our GDP is tied to the consumer. The credit crisis of 2008 and the current hard times are very much a reflection of how consumers themselves have become a threatened resource. Talk of recovery shows how little we actually understand our economy, as many leaders seem to expect that we can go back to normal, circa 2006. The Great Recession is actually part of a phase change in our society and economy that is transforming business as usual. Incremental bits of growth in manufacturing and retail since last fall are likely artifacts of massive government intervention that rivals the command economy experiments of former Communist nations. Western governments have put hundreds of billions of dollars into forestalling the realities of the 21st century with bailouts and stimulus spending, but a great many consumers are still in crisis, especially in the U.S. where as many as six million households now live off food stamps with no other income.

There is still a paradox at the core of our economy: certainly we’ve been blessed with a great many things — electronics, flat screen TVs, phones — that have become cheaper and more accessible. But the truly important things — food, education, healthcare, energy — have been gradually and persistently growing more expensive. This is one of the main challenges in the current century, one that is only amplified by climate change and the need for carbon pricing. I don’t see that trend abating.

Indeed, our material systems and our economy have come to resemble troubled ecological systems. They’re becoming gradually destabilized. Even now, for example, many of our leaders make the assumption that we’ll have persistently affordable energy going forward. I’m not suggesting there’s an imminent collapse — I don’t generally believe peak oil theories — but in a world addicted to cheap, even incremental decline in our resources make it hazardous to cling to old ideas and assumptions about what constitutes real growth, prosperity, and security...."

Read more at Zócalo Public Square, plus an exclusive excerpt from the book on Los Angeles and the city's return to old economies -- offshore oil and shipping -- in the midst of California's financial crisis.