Richard (Rick) Samans is an internationally-recognized expert on strengthening the growth and development prospects of economies through fundamental improvement in their social inclusion and environmental sustainability. He has proposed corresponding structural reforms of macroeconomic theory and policy, corporate governance, and the international economic architecture—an agenda to adapt the “source code” of market economies to 21st century circumstances and thereby improve their social and political cohesion as well as growth.
A former senior US government official and international organization chief executive, he is author of numerous related publications accessible from this site, including Human-Centred Economics: The Living Standards of Nations, which the Financial Times selected as one of the best books of 2024 on Economics. He has worked for decades at the intersection of economic and financial issues and the challenges of inequality and climate change in a career spanning the US White House, top business membership organizations, research institutes and the multilateral system, including the International Labour Organization and G20. read bio >
Selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2024 on Economics.
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“This thought-provoking book . . argues that we need a new objective for policy. Instead of focusing on aggregate GDP, countries . . should be ‘protecting and promoting median living standards’. . This makes sense.”
— Martin Wolf, Financial Times Chief Economics Commentator
“. . the most serious and specific replacement of neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus I have seen.”
— Sharan Burrow, Former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation
Enabling a just transition to lower-carbon and more climate-resilient economies
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