Economy

Capitalism Unmasked 1 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 1: The Myth of the Free Market 2 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 2: The Shareholder Value Myth 3 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 3: The Trickle-Down Delusion 4 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 4: The Myth of the Lazy Poor 5 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 5: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Distrust 6 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 6: The Education Myth 7 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 7: The Myth of Natural Inequality 8 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 8: The Myth of Capital Flight 9 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 9: The Myth of the Rational Consumer 10 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 10: The Hidden Costs of 'Free' Markets 11 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 11: The Myth of the Self-Made Man 12 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 12: The Myth of Efficient Financial Markets 13 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 13: The Myth of Corporate Social Responsibility 14 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 14: The Myth of Growth 15 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 15: Development Institutions - Help or Hindrance? 16 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 16: The Myth of Immigration Harm 17 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 17: The Myth of Flexible Labor Markets 18 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 18: The Myth of Shareholder Primacy 19 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 19: The Myth of Technological Unemployment 20 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 20: The Privatization Illusion 21 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 21: The Myth of Patent Protection 22 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 22: The Myth of Government Debt Crisis 23 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 23: Finance - Economy's Brain or Parasite? ← Series Home What They Tell You Finance is the brain of the economy. It allocates capital to its most productive uses. Financial innovation creates value by better matching savers and borrowers, managing risk, and enabling new forms of investment. A larger financial sector means a more sophisticated economy. We should be proud of our financial centers. ...

The Unnatural Economy: Reclaiming Nature's 3.8 Billion Year Design Manual 1 The Unnatural Economy - Part 1: The One Percent Solution: Why 3.8 Billion Years of R&D Matters 2 The Unnatural Economy - Part 2: The Spiral Mandate: Why Nature Never Uses a Straight Line 3 The Unnatural Economy - Part 3: Dragging the Past: From Sharkskin to Supersonic Efficiency 4 The Unnatural Economy - Part 4: The Zero-Waste Blueprint: Fungi, Mussels, and Green Chemistry 5 The Unnatural Economy - Part 5: The Corporate Jungle: The High Cost of the "Not Invented Here" Syndrome ← Series Home Key Takeaways Nature’s 3.8 billion years of R&D: Evolution has tested trillions of designs, with only 1% surviving—offering vetted solutions for human problems. Biomimicry as economic imperative: Learning from nature provides energy efficiency, waste elimination, and competitive advantage. From hippo sunscreen to sharkskin paint: Biological adaptations solve complex problems without toxins or side effects. The new gold rush: Biomimicry could generate $1 trillion in global GDP by 2025. Nature’s Superior Sunscreen Most young ladies sunning by the pool or beach probably aren’t thinking about a hippopotamus, let alone its perspiration. Yet, in a stark illustration of nature’s engineering superiority, the rust-colored secretion of the hippo provides a highly effective, four-in-one sunblock. While humans rely on salt water evaporation to cool the skin, the hippopotamus secretes a complex, nontoxic blend of chemicals that is simultaneously antiseptic, insect-repelling, antifungal, and an excellent sunscreen. Researchers found two pigments in the mucus blend that absorb light across the ultraviolet-visible range, with crystalline structures ensuring the material spreads effortlessly across the skin—a crucial feature for an animal that cannot apply lotion by hand. The market for human sunscreen is substantial, but many of the existing eighteen hundred products fail to live up to their claims and introduce toxins into the bloodstream, creating secondary cancer risks. This single biological adaptation illustrates a profound truth: nature routinely solves complex problems—like integrated sun protection and anti-infection—without generating the side effects that plague human industrial design. ...

References Ambrose, S. (1998). Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 34, 623-651. \ Anderson, R. (2009). Confessions of a radical industrialist: Profits, people, purpose—Doing business by respecting the earth. McClelland & Stewart. \ Anderson, R. (Mid-course correction: Toward a sustainable enterprise: The Interface model). \ Benyus, J. M. (1997). Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. (ISBN 0-06-053322-6). \ Biomimicry 3.8. (n.d.). Life’s principles. \ Fermanian Business & Economic Institute. (2011). Biomimicry and economics: The DaVinci Index [Presentation]. \ ...