,One of the things we try to do at Democracy Alert is highlight interesting books and reports that address growing inequality and the lack of democratic push-back. If you check out our resource section you will see Coles Notes type summaries, in point form, of Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the 21st Century, Wendy Brown’s Undoing the Demos, Colin Crouch’s Post Democracy and Guy Standing’s The Precariat, the new emerging class.
These authors convincingly document the negative impact of the neoliberal policies of the last 40 years. What has been missing so far, however, is an analysis of the flawed thinking behind neoliberal economics. Two recently published books fill that gap.
J is for Junk Economics, by American economist Michael Hudson, demonstrates how modern economists deliberately put meaning into economic words that actually mean the opposite of their historical roots. The parallels with the Doublethink of Orwell’s 1984 are obvious.
This is a great book for unravelling the gobbledygook of economic terminology and showing how it has artificially fettered and distorted economic debate and discussion. Because it’s written in the form of an A to Z dictionary of prevailing economic terminology, we haven’t yet figured out how to summarize the book. However, you can learn more about Michael Hudson’s ideas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM0_7PVuVVg
The second book, Can we avoid another financial crisis?, is by Australian economist, Steve Keen. Keen was one of the very few economists worldwide to anticipate the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. He argues that another financial crisis is inevitable, given the instability of our current economic system and identifies the five countries that will probably be the hardest hit. Canada is one of them.
Can we avoid another financial crisis? is an excellent start for anyone who wants to understand the true nature of the global economic system. For a brief overview of Steve Keen’s analysis click here.
These authors convincingly document the negative impact of the neoliberal policies of the last 40 years. What has been missing so far, however, is an analysis of the flawed thinking behind neoliberal economics. Two recently published books fill that gap.
J is for Junk Economics, by American economist Michael Hudson, demonstrates how modern economists deliberately put meaning into economic words that actually mean the opposite of their historical roots. The parallels with the Doublethink of Orwell’s 1984 are obvious.
This is a great book for unravelling the gobbledygook of economic terminology and showing how it has artificially fettered and distorted economic debate and discussion. Because it’s written in the form of an A to Z dictionary of prevailing economic terminology, we haven’t yet figured out how to summarize the book. However, you can learn more about Michael Hudson’s ideas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM0_7PVuVVg
The second book, Can we avoid another financial crisis?, is by Australian economist, Steve Keen. Keen was one of the very few economists worldwide to anticipate the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. He argues that another financial crisis is inevitable, given the instability of our current economic system and identifies the five countries that will probably be the hardest hit. Canada is one of them.
Can we avoid another financial crisis? is an excellent start for anyone who wants to understand the true nature of the global economic system. For a brief overview of Steve Keen’s analysis click here.
RSS Feed
