The purpose of this blog is to provide a space for considering contemporary economics research that reaches beyond the framework of neo-classical economics. Although neo-classical approaches to economics have been ascendant since the 1970's, the real world consequences of this ascendance, including declining real incomes and rising inequality, suggest that it may be time for a reevaluation.
There are alternatives to neo-classical economics. What Erik Reinert calls the "other cannon" has a venerable tradition that goes back many centuries. Along similar lines, Ha Joon Chang has shown that durring their phenomenal rise, the United Kingdom and United States, as well as virtually all other Western societies deployed policies that are the antithesis of the free market, laissez faire approach that dominates today.
Unfortunately, much of the debate over economic policy in the English speaking world has been commandeered by narrow interest groups that benefit from the status quo. This has made it very difficult for many American and European policymakers to learn from the experiences of successful countries. The wealth and abundance of societies as diverse as Israel, Switzerland, Singapore and South Korea owes much to policies that bear a strong family resemblance to those carried out by the United Kingdom from the 1690's to the 1840's and the United States from the 1790's to the 1970's. The true history of Anglo-American development as well as the sources of success in Israel, Switzerland and elsewhere have unfortunately been obscured by the efforts of influential economic interest groups in the US and UK.
As the North Atlantic world continues to struggle with economic stagnation, high unemployment, and savage austerity, it is time to question the validity of the "mathematized ideology" that has become mainstream Anglophone economics. There are alternatives!
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