Economics is facing a significant challenge today, prompted by the continuing global financial crisis. In the August issue we touched on the need to find a link to accounting, which is the particular characteristic of associative economics. But, whereas accounting conceives things in terms of balance, economics thinks in terms of equilibrium. Are these two words for the same thing, or do they refer to different realities? One can sense, for example, that ‘balance’ implies more an active human presence, while ‘equilibrium’ has the mood of an economy to one side of the human beings whose actions make it up.
The overall theme is introduced and illustrated by the seminal ‘alchemical’ considerations of George Soros. Not universally accepted, they are nevertheless ‘words from the street’, so to speak.
In Sign of the Times, the problems facing economists, are described in their own terms. The founding of a World Economics Association is an endeavour to reinvent economics.
In The Sense of Right Christopher Houghton Budd reminds us of a theme that has its origins in Aristotle and leads directly into modern times, without which the modern finance cannot be expected to change.
In the archive piece, we highlight two key thoughts from Rudolf Steiner. Selected to be read in tandem with the piece by George Soros, Rudolf Steiner’s understanding of equilibrium – and by extension that of associative economics – is illustrated, first in a macro or economic view, then from a micro or business perspective.
The AE-Echange Page this month features follow-ups on previous topics, espeically Keynes’s International Clearing Union, an economic balancing between countries.
Accounting Corner completes the issue with its focus on Reconciling Balance and Equilibrium.
