Romm, McKibben, Whitehead push ‘green’ stimulus

With one notable caveat and one big WHY

First, let me get to the WHY, because it’s near the top of the article the three wrote on Salon.

McKibben says:

I think we should at least keep in mind the possibility that we won't really get out of this economic crisis -- that far from being a cyclical downturn, it may be a signal of something more remarkable: the confluence of forces, like peak oil, finally starting to bring our growth era to an end. If so, it makes sense to push at least a little investment in the direction of infrastructure that would support a different kind of economy than the one we've spent the last hundred years building.

Indeed, what if?

Romm has a laundry list of green stimulus specifics he suggests.

And Whitehead has the caveat:

Basic Keynesian macroeconomic theory states that deficit spending can be used to help an economy recover from a downturn. We've been applying deficit spending for the past eight years or so and we are staring at an ugly recession. Deficit spending did not prevent the recession, so it may be that further deficit spending is not the answer.

So, in different ways, both McKibben and Whitehead are saying we need to think NEW, not just think big, on fiscal actions.

Read the full article; it’s got some good insights.