David Korten
Dr. David Korten is the author of "Agenda for a New Economy," "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community," "Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth," and the international bestseller "When Corporations Rule the World." He is board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, president of the Living Economies Forum, and a member of the Club of Rome. He holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School.
Articles by this author
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Views Saturday, September 02, 2017 For the Love of Earth On July 9, New York magazine published “The Uninhabitable Earth,” a worst-case climate change scenario suggesting that our current human course may produce an unlivable future for Earth. A burst of media commentary and controversy followed, and it quickly became the most-read article in the... Read more |
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Views Sunday, June 18, 2017 We Will Soon Be Using More Than The Earth Can Provide Four days after President Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the Global Footprint Network (GFN) reported that Earth Overshoot Day 2017 will fall on August 2. Most Americans likely have no idea what that means. The basic point is quite simple: From... Read more |
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Views Saturday, May 27, 2017 Mayor's Unflinching Honesty About Confederate Monuments Gives Me Hope I’ve rarely been so moved by a political speech. If you haven’t heard it, don’t miss it. I refer to the speech on May 19 by Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans. He was speaking about the reasons for his city’s removal of monuments to Confederate generals. (You can read the text, but to get the... Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 04, 2017 Why a Just and Sustainable Economy Looks Like a Doughnut I see a lot of books presuming to explain what’s wrong with the economy and what to do about it. Rarely do I come across one with the consistent new paradigm frame, historical depth, practical sensibility, systemic analysis, and readability of Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth . Especially unique... Read more |
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Views Sunday, March 26, 2017 The Superrich Have Profited From a Broken System—And Their Money Alone Won’t Fix It Congratulations, you won—you are the last and richest person on Earth. In the security of your sunless underground bunker, you will be the last to die in a dying Earth’s paroxysm of fire and flood. In a recent column for YES! Magazine , Chuck Collins, “born on third base” social activist and... Read more |
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Views Friday, December 16, 2016 Trump Played to Anger, But We Don’t Have to Fall for Divide and Conquer The heroic work of the Standing Rock water protectors represents a defining moment in the long struggle against the institutions of empire and colonial rule. It is fitting that the leaders are indigenous peoples who have come together in an ever-widening circle. As the Standing Rock circle has... Read more |
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Views Friday, November 04, 2016 Forget More Regulation: Make Corporations Serve the Public Interest My previous column called for a major restructuring of both governmental and corporate institutions to strengthen democracy and subordinate corporate power and the pursuit of corporate profits to the power and interests of living people and communities. I was a youth during the brief historical... Read more |
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Views Friday, October 21, 2016 We Never Voted for Corporate Rule This column is the second part of a series. To read Part One, click here . In Part One, I argued that a healthy society requires that governments be accountable to the people for the well-being of all , and that corporations be accountable to democratic governments. Last week, Bayer, a... Read more |
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Views Thursday, September 22, 2016 Want National Security? Dismantle the War Machine The recent 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade towers was a reminder of the terrible consequences when a nation ignores the lessons of history—including its own recent history. The U.S. military budget is a tragic example. We currently spend roughly $598... Read more |
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Views Friday, August 12, 2016 How to Break the Power of Money Our current political chaos has a simple explanation. The economic system is driving environmental collapse, economic desperation, political corruption, and financial instability. And it isn’t working for the vast majority of people. It serves mainly the interests of a financial oligarchy that in... Read more |