Learn Your ABC of Economics
Surely, since the financial crisis of 2008 the theories of neoliberalism should be dead in the water. Nevertheless, after 40 years of the neoliberal global free market approach, the acolytes of these schools are in the majority in almost every economic institution and many politicians remain under their spell.
The EU Commission is a sad example of this. It is still using every opportunity to try to force its member states to privatize their assets, for example the railways and the water supply. The latter has currently been brought to a temporary halt by the people’s Right2Water movement. If you look at the sad outcomes of privatization for the railways and the water industry in the UK you can only despair at the EU’s inability to learn. Today over 70% of UK citizens want a renationalization of the railways. The EU on the contrary ".....introduces mandatory tendering for public service contracts in rail" from 2019 on.
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/rail/packages/2013_en
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/08/water-industry-pipes-scandal
The impact of economics on our lives and the planet is far too important to be left to the so-called experts.
Everybody who is interested in the future should therefore get some basic economic knowledge under their belt. Otherwise they will be easily fooled by politicians, experts of certain economic schools, ideology and toxic theories. Here are some important economic questions for you to consider:
- Is constant growth necessary and inevitable...
...or is constant growth a crazy approach in view of the planet’s limited resources? - Can the economy be predicted by mathematical models...
...or is the economy driven by fortune-telling and mass psychology? - Are laws of nature at work within the economy and is the good economist a pure observer of these laws without any responsibility...
...or is the economy created by humans and we can choose to change the economy to one that leads to less suffering? - Are government bureaucrats always less capable of meaningful market interventions than businesspeople who follow their self-interest...
...or are the government’s market interventions inevitable because, in contrast to the exchange of nuts and berries, modern markets only exist within the legal frameworks created by governments?
- Are meaningful market interventions impossible because nobody understands the market...
...or are the government’s market interventions necessary to ensure the benefit of all its citizens? - Is rising inequality a good thing and a positive result of the ideal market?
- Is our current global economy a doomsday machine?
- Is it the road to a bright future for all?
If you read only one book on economics
it should be this one:
- Kate Raworth: Doughnut Economics – Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist; Random House Business Books, part of the Penguin Random House Group, London, 2017 https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1107761/doughnut-economics/
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has promised an “…. open online course and public podcast series to allow any citizen to inform themselves and to engage with the economic debate.” (Economics for everyone, Prospectus for the Citizens’ Economic Council, page 25)
» www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/economics-for-everyone.pdf
Here are some reading recommendations across the political spectrum:
Ha-Joon Chang: Economics: The User’s Guide;
Pelican Books, published by Penguin Group, London, 2014
» www.penguin.co.uk/books/187172/economics-the-user-s-guide
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Winner of the Nobel Prize: The Euro and its Threat to the Future of Europe; Allen Lane, imprint of Penguin Books, London, 2016
» www.penguin.co.uk/books/294714/the-euro
Yanis Varoufakis: The Global Minotaur; America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy; Zed Books, London, 2015
» www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/the-global-minotaur
Yanis Varoufakis: And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House Group, London, 2017
» www.penguin.co.uk/books/1111278/and-the-weak-suffer-what-they-must
Niko Paech: Befreiung vom Überfluss. Auf dem Weg in die Postwachstumsökonomie, oekom 2016;
» https://www.oekom.de/nc/buecher/gesamtprogramm/buch/befreiung-vom-ueberfluss.html
Wolfgang Streeck: Buying Time - The Postponed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Verso, 2014;
» www.versobooks.com/books/2390-buying-time
Wolfgang Streeck: Gekaufte Zeit – Die vertagte Krise des demokratischen Kapitalismus, Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, 2013, 2015
» www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/gekaufte_zeit-wolfgang_streeck_29733.html
F. A. Hayek: The Road to Serfdom, The University of Chicago Press, Routledge, London, 2007
» www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago
Hans-Werner Sinn: Der schwarze Juni, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2016;
» www.herder.de/leben-shop/der-schwarze-juni-ebook-(epub)