The New Economics – A Manifesto

Blurb

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wall of Wittenberg church. He argued that the Church’s internally consistent but absurd doctrines had pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth. It was time for a Reformation. Half a millennium later, Steve Keen argues that economics needs its own Reformation. In Debunking Economics, he eviscerated an intellectual church – neoclassical economics – that systematically ignores its own empirical untruths and logical fallacies, and yet is still mysteriously worshipped by its scholarly high priests. In this book, he presents his Reformation: a New Economics, which tackles serious issues that today's economic priesthood ignores, such as money, energy and ecological sustainability. It gives us hope that we can save our economies from collapse and the planet from ecological catastrophe. Performing this task with his usual panache and wit, Steve Keen’s new book is unmissable to anyone who has noticed that the economics Emperor is naked and would like him to put on some clothes.

Book summary

Having dissected what's supposedly wrong with contemporary macroeconomics, Steve Keen, on the leading critics of the mainstream of our times and distinguished economist himself, goes on to present his idea of a New Economics: What premises it should build on, what methods it should use, and yes, what purpose it should serve.

Comment from our editors:

Steve Keen is among the most vocal critics of contemporary economics. Never shy of a trenchant turn of phrase, he constantly criticises the ways he thinks modern (macro-)economics fails to appreciate the relevant factors of its subject, thus contributing to growing inequality, continuous exploitation, and the climate crisis. He gives particular short thrift to the highly stylised, model-fixated analysis of economies supposedly in equilibrium to which they return when pushed out of it by, say, war, pandemics, or other exogenous shocks. Here, he presents his alternative framework of economic thinking, aiming both to tack more closely to economic reality and include factors so far excluded by mainstream macroeconomic models.