Abstract

Economics is extremely sick. It is so locked in its past that nearly all of its introductory textbooks are modelled on one that appeared in 1948. The discipline cannot continue in its autistic state much longer. This book takes you to the heart of a fiery and many-faceted debate.  It is comprised of 66 articles that have been selected based on their importance to the reform movement and for their accessibility to the general reader. ‘Real economic problems’ concern real people, so their analysis must be made intelligible to an educated general public if real democracy is to function. All economists must learn to live without the belief that there is only one right way of describing and explaining reality. This requires economists to begin the development of an ethos of honesty regarding the limitations of their chosen approaches.

The articles in this book have been selected for their importance to the reform movement and for their accessibility to the general reader. Intelligibility is one of the movement's two keystones. "Real economic problems" concern real people, so their analysis must be made intelligible to an educated general public if real democracy is to function.

The second keystone of the post-autistic movement is pluralism. All analysis proceeds on the basis of concepts that admit only a partial view of the economy, thereby predetermining the set of possible conclusions. This requires economists to begin to develop an ethos of honesty regarding the limitations of their chosen approaches. In engaging and thought-provoking prose, the 66 chapters of this book bring these and other conflicts out into the open and place them in the context of the major issues of the 21st century.

'This book should be required reading for students taking economic classes and for heterodox economists who want to create a better economics.' —David F. Ruccio, Professor of Economics & Policy Studies, University of Notre Dame

'Promises to reshape contemporary economic discourse to the benefit of students, professors, activists, and citizens of the world.' —Frederic S. Lee, University of Missouri-Kansas City, author of ‘Post Keynesian Price Theory’ and editor of the ‘Heterodox Economics Newsletter’

Edward Fullbrook is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Economics, University of West England.

'Recommended. Heterodox economics collections supporting all levels of undergraduate and graduate students.' —R.B. Emmett, ‘Choice’

'This book is an effort to bring economics back to reality. Given the influence that economists often have on public policy, this is an important task.' —Dean Baker, Co-Director, Centre for Economic and Policy Research, Washington