Is There an Economic Future? George Soros, Tamiel Roubini, Jeffrey Sachs
These three were moderated today by John Roberts of CNN @ Columbia today and I understand it will air in a week or two- before the election on the EI. website. If you aren’t familiar with these names, Soros & Roubini predicted the current crash years ago and advocate a sustainable economic system based on natural resource sustainability. Soros bankrolled the Clintons and is now backing Obama. Basically, amongst other things, they said if McCain gets it, it will be the “end of the world” as we know it because everything will take a bottomless wrong turn crash of a cliff of economic fallacies. What we need, they said, is seeing the big picture and a skeptical attitude. In any case, tho we‘ve hit the economic bottom, the hard-landing fall out will probably continue to play out for as much as 24 mons as consumerism comes to a grinding halt globally. Unemployment, for example, now at 6.5% may soon hit 9%. The entire (excellent) session will be on the Earth Institute website by Tues. (see link below). I was able to ask the first question, introduced myself by name and as an ecological artist:
“First, I hope you run this every day on CNN until the election (which got applause & laughter). What you’re describing, in terms of a biological parallel, in disturbance theory, is that we’ve gone past oscillations to a baseline change, an opportunity for major change. Nothing is better at showing the big picture with skepticism than art. In an ideal world, I can ask this question as an artist, if Obama wins, what would a team look like that could address this whole mess?”
Soros, Roberts and Roubini perked up.
Roubini answered that he agreed about art’s role and that the real answer was in re-thinking how we invest (in sustainable systems.) Afterwards I introduced myself and he warmly added that he wanted to tell me he collects art. So, the upshot in terms of our dialog, is that now more people know there’s such a thing as ecological art and that there may be a connection to crisis policy. I gave him my card. Roubini will be testifying to the US Congress next week.
Monday, October 20
Environmental and Sustainable Development Programs Open House
