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Summer School "Ecology and Society: Frontiers and Boundaries" / 3 - 7 June 2019

Ecosystems societies Climate change Forests Hydrosystems Atmosphere Biodiversity Agrosystems Pressures Impacts Modelling Pollution Ecotoxicology Biogeochimical cycles Ecology Adaptability
Dune du Pyla
Dune du Pyla
Vallée du Ciron - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Vallée du Ciron - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Biogeochemical cycles of disrupted ecosystems
Biogeochemical cycles of disrupted ecosystems
Vineyard - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Vineyard - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Forest trip
Forest trip
Evening
Evening
Hydrosystems week
Hydrosystems week
Crédit LabEx COTE
Report by students
Dégustation - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Dégustation - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Evening
Evening
Forests week
Forests week
Group - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Group - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Visiting Bordeaux
Visiting Bordeaux
Class room - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Class room - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Forest trip
Forest trip
Ecosystems services
Ecosystems services
Wine tasting - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Wine tasting - Crédits photo LabEx COTE
Cellars
Cellars
Field trip - Salles
Field trip - Salles
Dune du Pyla
Dune du Pyla

In the Short Run We Are All Dead. Or, How Financial Volatility Conceals Environmental Signals

Last update Thursday 22 June 2017

by Ivan Ascher

The English economist John Maynard Keynes made no secret of his irritation with his neoclassical colleagues who insisted that if left to its own devices, the market would reach an equilibrium, optimum point. While such an equilibrium might be achieved in the long run, Keynes conceded, "the long run is a misleading guide to current affairs." As he famously quipped, "in the long run we are all dead."

Nearly a century later, the neoclassical paradigm retains a remarkably strong hold on much of the policy establishment, and Keynes's phrase has lost none of its poignancy. If anything, it may even have to be amended to reflect a new urgency and a changing temporal order. Not only is the threat of environmental collapse greater than ever, but the time horizon of today's economic actors seems to be growing shorter by the day. In the short run, it seems, we are all dead.

There are those, admittedly, who still trust that the market and its price signals can provide agents all the information they need to allocate their resources optimally and thus incorporate information about environmental trends. But in an age of financialized capitalism and derivative markets, that is simply not the case. If anything, today's financial markets can be shown to conceal environmental trends, and to pretend otherwise would be both mistaken and politically irresponsible.