Joel Magnuson – författare

Joel Magnuson's visionary insights into the decline of the Oil Age and life afterward combine sobering warnings with genuine hope. The facts are hard: global oil deposits will soon peak if they haven't already and the violent race to secure what's left has already begun. Meanwhile, our culture of consumption continues its heedless dependence on this and other scarce and fast-disappearing resources including other fossil fuels, water, topsoil, and basic metals. The consequences won't just be expensive gasoline. The very nature of life as we've come to know it will change and Magnuson explains how compounding factors like global warming, skyrocketing debt, and ill-prepared governments stand to turn this inevitable change into a needless catastrophe. But the hope is real: individuals and communities around the world have already begun taking action to shift away from consumer culture. Drawing on the visionary work of E.F. Schumacher, John Ruskin, and other pioneering thinkers, Magnuson argues that mindful and concerted action can shape the future. With an emphasis on current transitional projects like B Corporations and LETS projects, he shows that the true great transformation is already underway and it's up to us to continue it. With a foreword by Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)

Despite our fitful attempts over decades at reform, the global financial system seems caught in cycles of boom and bust, instability, and scandal. In this timely new book, Joel Magnuson builds on the classic works of E. F. Schumacher and other kindred spirits to provide a Buddhist economics perspective on this recurring pattern, and offers new possibilities for real change.The book centers on the belief that greed, aggression, and delusion (Buddhism’s “three poisons”) are embedded within our financial institutions and that they perpetuate the continued widespread attachment to endless economic growth and financial accumulation that are responsible for social and ecological malaise. Arguing that mainstream economics fails to adequately address this cycle, Magnuson presents a new framework of Buddhist economics, helping readers gain a deeper understanding of current economic problems and offering a course toward genuine wellbeing.

As we tour the 400 year history of capitalism through its various phases of development, financial system instability is always there lurking in the shadows.

Since traditional Buddhism provides few sources to build a Buddhist economic vision, this work brings together Buddhist notions of skillful practice, John Dewey’s pragmatic principles for social provisioning, and institutional economics.