Today's Corporation Cannot Deliver Tomorrow's Economy

Pavan Sukhdev Delivers New Business Plan

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With only 45 days until the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Romney and Obama have yet to provide real answers on the three issues at stake: jobs, the economy, and taxes. Pavan Sukhdev, former Deutsche Bank banker and leader of the UNEP Green Economy Initiative, is taking on these issues and offering answers with his plan on how to both jumpstart our economy and avoid dangerous planetary tipping points.

He has this to say:

On the ECONOMY: Trillions of dollars of liquidity injections from QE1,2,3, etc. are about as useful for economic revival as injections of alcohol to cure a patient with a drinking problem. The real challenge is structural and intellectual: the failure to understand the importance of investing in institutional, human, and natural capital for sustained economic stability and progress, instead of policy giveaways to increase private profits.

On JOBS: Despite staggering growth in private profits from 3% of GDP in 1980 to 15% of GDP now, this past decade has seen the lowest growth in U.S. real wages since World War II. Both presidential candidates are dodging this reality. Public investments in greening the U.S. economy, including alternative skills development, can drive demand and create jobs, although they may not deliver as much campaign funding as a "business as usual" brown economy!

On TAXATION: With the recent recession still pressuring employment and profits, over-dependence on income tax (salaries) and corporation tax (profits) to fund government coffers makes no sense. Taxing the "bads" (resource extraction and use, of minerals and fossil fuels) and not the "goods" (value-addition by corporations and hard work by the American people) is the way to go.

Sukhdev, author of the new book CORPORATION 2020 (Island Press) argues that since businesses create 75% of GDP, they are well-positioned to tackle these issues if governments and their agents direct them toward transforming regulations and creating incentives for corporations to change and adapt.

They do this through four crucial reforms: limiting leverage, making advertising accountable, disclosure of externalities, and resource taxation. With CORPORATION 2020, Sukhdev, Founder-CEO of environmental consulting firm GIST Advisory, offers a sweeping vision of a better corporate model that allows business to be more equitable and sustainable.

WEBSITE www.islandpress.org/corp2020, www.corp2020.com

SOURCE Island Press