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Afterword: A Sustainable Economic and Finance Proposal Chapter j 30 575

terms of growth, jobs, and new ventures. As the Brookings Institute stated:
“the clean economy remains an enigma: hard to assess. Not only do ‘green’ or
‘clean’ activities and jobs related to environmental aims pervade all sectors of
the U.S. economy; they also remain tricky to define and isolatedand count.”
(Muro et al., 2011, p. 3).
The need is to outline various areas of focus that research proposals should
consider. The context for these five areas is that the “world is round.” Unlike
some conventional economists, the point to this entire proposal is look at the
world and understand, how more than ever, every region of the world is
connected and dependent on anotherdbe it through the environment, energy
or economics, people, communities, and businesses depend and work with one
another from around the world. Hence the five areas suggested directly reflect
what are considered the most important.

Corporate Governance in an Age of Economic Globalization

Any action taken in one part of the world is very likely to be known quickly
around the world. The current result of social networks in the Middle East are
just one recent example. Other regions of the world will soon be engulfed in
the same immediate awareness that can turn into new behaviors and trends.
The results will range from violence to controlled governance. But the
awareness will continue. Hence the economic view among many people now is
that there is a growing caste society of the very rich (only a small percentage
of any population) and the poor (most of the population). The emergence of a
middle class is rapidly leaving the developed industrial world. Where are the
leaders in the world for new economics that will recreate a middle class? The
examples are coming from South America (Brazil), Asia (China), and Africa
(Mauritius), along with other nations.
The role of government is critical and very different from what is now being
done in the United States and parts of the European Union, especially like the
United Kingdom and the Netherlands. What that new role of government is
must be learned from newly developed countries that have successfully rede-
fined both economics and governments. The best model appears to be from
China, and also from the Nordic countries and some EU nations.

Political Economy of the State and Public Goods Provision

As we look into the “next economics,” the concern is not only with making money
but also the public good, hence “social capitalism.” The Chinese have become the
leading symbol of this merged approach from the extremes of capitalism to
socialism. What is dynamic and even measurable so that results can be seen is
their use of Five-Year Plans. Now into the 13th Five-Year Plan (implemented in
March 2016), is presented in some of the Appendices and some Cases focus on
the entire nation is on environmental issues and sustainable development.