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Ep 149  |  John Fullerton

John Fullerton: “Regenerative Economics: New Economic Paradigms, Living Systems, & Holistic Thinking”

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TGS149 John Fullerton The Great Simplification

Show Summary

Our modern economic system is designed to maximize financial capital, viewing money as though it were wealth itself. But what would happen if we viewed wealth more holistically, taking into account our natural, social, cultural, and human capital, too?  

In this conversation, Nate is joined by unconventional economist John Fullerton to discuss the principles of regenerative economics and the need for shifts in our economic paradigms from reductionist thinking to holistic thinking. Fullerton emphasizes the importance of understanding economies as living systems, advocating for financial and monetary systems that align with the patterns of life. 

If regenerative economics represents a societal shift towards sustainability, how does our modern financial system act as a barrier to that shift? If the ‘myth of separation’ contributes to our current economic problems, what types of radical change are needed to reconcile our values dissonance as our crises deepen and accelerate? Finally, how can we teach ourselves to differentiate between the real economy and the financial economy – and to value the things that genuinely add to human and planetary well-being?

About John Fullerton

John Fullerton is an unconventional economist, impact investor, writer, and some have said philosopher. Building on and integrating the work of many in the field of ecological economics, he is the architect of Regenerative Economics, first conceived in his 2015 booklet, “Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Patterns and Principles Will Shape the New Economy.”

After a successful 20-year career on Wall Street where he was a Managing Director of what he calls “the old JPMorgan,” John listened to a persistent inner voice and walked away in 2001 with no plan but many questions. He went on to create The Capital Institute in 2010, which is dedicated to the bold reimagination of economics and finance in service to life. John is also the Chairman of New Day Enterprises, PBC, the co-founder of Grasslands, LLC, and a board member of both the Savory Institute and Stone Acres Farm.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – John Fullerton info, Capital Institute, Courses: Regenerative Economics + Regenerative Finance

03:43 – Walter Annenberg

07:26 – Avoiding cognitive dissonance: motivated reasoning + confirmation bias

10:55 – Prices are wrong

10:58 – The Economic Superorganism

11:20 – Regenerative Agriculture

11:52 – The Limits to Growth

12:55 – E.F. Schumacher, Herman Daly + TGS Episode, Peter Brown, Peter Victor 

13:00 – Ecological Economics journal

15:22 – Allan Savory, Holistic Planned Grazing

15:51 – Grasslands LLC

18:12 – Humans appropriate *44% of Net Primary Productivity

18:50 – Gaia Theory, James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis

19:25 – The Universe as a living system

20:24 – Living Systems overview

21:4 – *254 million students are enrolled in universities

21:52 – The influence of Newtonian Physics on Classical Economics

22:15 – Impact of Newton on Biology

22:30 – Clockwork universe

22:47 – Irving Fisher, 1892 Dissertation

24:01 – William Nordhaus Nobel Prize paper

24:30 – Corey Bradshaw + TGS Episode

24:38 – The estimated impact of climate change scenarios on extinctions

26:31 – Integrating entropy into economics

27:02 – Daniel Schmachtenberger + Bend Not Break series, TGS Episode on Artificial Intelligence, TGS Episode on Naive Progress

31:12 – The 8 principles of a Regenerative Economy

31:53 – Jan Smuts, *Holism and Evolution, Einstein’s praise of Smuts

32:37 – Wes Jackson

33:00 – Reductionism

34:55 – The finger and the moon analogy

38:00 – Bioregionalism

42:29 – Overshoot

42:50 – Trees grow at *2.5% per year

44:00 – Planetary Boundaries

44:22 – Doughnut Economics, Degrowth

46:09 – Donella Meadows, the importance of the paradigm 

48:23 – Carbon sequestration potential in soils + oceans + wetlands

49:47 – Maximum Power Principle

50:37 – *Mammal species have an average lifespan of 1-2 millions years

51:21 – The rise of the CFO

52:01 – Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

52:50 – For the Common Good pdf

52:44 – Chrematistics

59:54 – Robert Ulanowicz, resilience and efficiency graph Figure 1

1:01:23 – Financial overshoot and The Great Simplification 

1:02:00 – Finance for a Regenerative World pdf

1:02:25 – Regenerative Finance (ReFi)

1:04:33 – Financial Transaction Tax

1:11:37 – Free Rider Problem

1:12:41 – Fritjof Capra + TGS Episode

1:16:05 – nRhythm

1:27:41 – 2022 Physics Nobel Prize

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