Post growth, banks and finance
June 06 | 14:00
June 6 and 7 2024
The themes of degrowth and post-growth are increasingly debated in the academic world. Research communities are studying them from a variety of theoretical perspectives and with a variety of objectives. To limit global warming and preserve planetary limits, an empirical consensus is emerging on the need for a significant decrease in the flow of materials extracted, circulated and discharged by economies, which is difficult to separate from a decrease in their GDPs.
A consequent stream of research exists on money and growth, but this literature focuses relatively little on the banking and financial sectors. Yet these sectors play a central role in the creation, destruction and circulation of currencies, which frame the possibility of climate policies (where to find the money? one of the answers lies in money creation, cf. the IRA in the USA). The institutions in these sectors, through their regulatory standards (capital investments according to risk levels) and business models (acceptable risk levels), constrain and direct the volumes of investments earmarked for "green" investments, for example in renewable energies, energy and resource-saving devices and technologies.
Banks are making "green" investments. These are monetary creations aimed at making activities more sustainable. The issue of transforming entire economies according to sustainability criteria is not currently considered by the banking and financial sector. The decline in the material flows of economies, for example, would be accompanied, depending on the sector, by a decline or growth in financing flows from banks and the finance sector. A number of questions can be formulated on the basis of these elements. For the banking and finance sector, they concern:
-the diagnosis of sustainability conditions in relation to material flows and GDP growth,
-the compatibility of sustainability with the business models and profit rates of the banking and financial sectors.
-the interweaving of the banking and financial sectors in the evolution of forms of capitalism "compatible" with the ecological transition.
-methodological and epistemological questions concerning the scientific, political and "future" character of forms of economic organization in the banking and financial sector, as called for by research currents on de/post-growth.
Contact
Ilias Naji
ilias.naji ( at ) cmb.hu-berlin.de
Program
Workshop program (temporary)
Thursday 6th June 2024: short presentations and reactions
14h-14h15: opening Ilias Naji (h-da Darmstatd and CMB)
14h15-15h: German publics saving banks and postgrowth (Uli Klüh, Ilias Naji, Jakob Kubin, Hochshule Darmstadt)
15h-15-15: break
15h15-16h: post growth and banks/finance in perspective of ecological economics (Louison Cahen Fourot, Uni. Roskilde)
16h-16h45:Compatibility of the Paris Agreement and the monetary system (Anne Kervers Uni. Amsterdam)
16h45-17h: break
Conclusion
18h – drink and dinner
Friday 7th June 2024: exchanges
9h-10: socio-ecological sustainability, business models and profit rates of the banking and financial sectors
10h-11h: interweaving of the banking and financial sectors within forms of capitalism "compatible" with the ecological transition.
11h-12h: methodological and epistemological questions on future forms of banking and financial sectors
12h – lunch
Indicatives references on money and de/postgrowth
Aigner, Ernest, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot, et Colleen Schneider. 2022. « Money and finance: An overview of strategies for social-ecological transformation in the field of money and finance and the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common Good ». Degrowth & Strategy: how to bring about social-ecological transformation, 351‑74.
Ament, Joe. 2019. « A Socio-Ecological Revolution in Monetary Theory: An Argument for, the Development of, and an Application of Ecological Monetary Theory ». Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, janvier. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/1158.
Arnsperger, Christian, Jem Bendell, et Matthew Slater. 2021. « Monetary Adaptation to Planetary Emergency: Addressing the Monetary Growth Imperative ». Report. Vol. 8. Ambleside, UK.: University of Cumbria. https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5993/.
Cahen-Fourot, Louison. 2022a. « Central banking for a social-ecological transformation ». In The future of central banking, 195‑218. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781839100932/book-part-9781839100932-20.xml.
———. 2022b. « Looking for growth imperatives under capitalism: money, wage labour, and market exchange ». Working Paper Series. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/264902.
Cahen-Fourot, Louison, et Marc Lavoie. 2016. « Ecological monetary economics: A post-Keynesian critique ». Ecological Economics 126:163‑68.
Dittmer, Kristofer. 2013. « Local currencies for purposive degrowth? A quality check of some proposals for changing money-as-usual ». Journal of Cleaner Production 54:3‑13.
Douthwaite, Richard. 2012. « Degrowth and the supply of money in an energy-scarce world ». Ecological Economics 84:187‑93.
Engler, John-Oliver, Max-Friedemann Kretschmer, Joe A. Ament, Thomas Huth, et Henrik von Wehrden. 2022. « The Limits to Degrowth: A Systematic Analysis of Monetary and Distributional Policy Proposals in the Degrowth Literature ». SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4089414.
Exner, Andreas. 2014. « Degrowth and Demonetization: On the Limits of a Non-Capitalist Market Economy ». Capitalism Nature Socialism 25 (3): 9‑27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2014.882963.
Kallis, Giorgos, Vasilis Kostakis, Steffen Lange, Barbara Muraca, Susan Paulson, et Matthias Schmelzer. 2018. « Research On Degrowth ». Annual Review of Environment and Resources 43 (Volume 43, 2018): 291‑316. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-102017-025941.
Krogstrup, Signe, et William Oman. 2019. Macroeconomic and Financial Policies for Climate Change Mitigation: A Review of the Literature. International Monetary Fund.
Nelson, Anitra. 2016. « Non-monetary degrowth is strategically significant ». In 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest, Hungary, 30:2016. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anitra-Nelson/publication/307128495_Non-Monetary_Degrowth_is_Strategically_Significant/links/57c2069908aeda1ec38cf6f8/Non-Monetary-Degrowth-is-Strategically-Significant.pdf.
Olk, Christopher, Colleen Schneider, et Jason Hickel. 2023. « How to pay for saving the world: Modern Monetary Theory for a degrowth transition ». Ecological Economics 214:107968.
Pollitt, Hector, et Jean-Francois Mercure. 2018. « The role of money and the financial sector in energy-economy models used for assessing climate and energy policy ». Climate Policy 18 (2): 184‑97. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2016.1277685.
Scheidler, Fabian, et Matthias Schmelzer. 2014. « Beyond Regulation: Money, Banks and Finance in a Degrowth Perspective ». In Group Assembly Process (GAP) Stirring Paper, Conference Leipzig. https://www. degrowth. info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Sche. pdf. https://co-munity.net/de/system/files/Sche.pdf.
Solari, Maurizio, Alexandre Le Bloc’h, et Sergio Rossi. 2024. « Ecological Transition in a Monetary Economy of Production: A Heterodox Approach ». Eurasian Economic Review 14 (1): 13‑37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40822-023-00252-w.
Strunz, Sebastian, Bartosz Bartkowski, et Harry Schindler. 2017. Is there a monetary growth imperative? Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/downloadpdf/edcollchap/edcoll/9781783473557/9781783473557.00024.pdf.
Svartzman, Romain, Joseph Ament, David Barmes, Jon D. Erickson, Joshua Farley, Charles Guay-Boutet, et Nicolas Kosoy. 2020. « Money, Interest Rates and Accumulation on a Finite Planet: Revisiting the ‘Monetary Growth Imperative’ through Institutionalist Approaches ». In Sustainable Wellbeing Futures, 266‑83. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/edcoll/9781789900941/9781789900941.00026.xml.
Svartzman, Romain, Dominique Dron, et Etienne Espagne. 2019. « From ecological macroeconomics to a theory of endogenous money for a finite planet ». Ecological Economics 162 (août):108‑20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.04.018.