Economics

The Future of South-South Economic Relations
Adil Najam and Rachel Thrasher
8 November 2012

In recent years, it has become apparent that South-South economic relations are increasing, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. There will be more trade agreements and more trade, more economic alliances and more political alliances with economic goals, more investment flows...

Reclaiming Public Ownership
Making Space for Economic Democracy
Andrew Cumbers
13 September 2012

The last few years have seen the spectacular failure of market fundamentalism in Europe and the US, with a seemingly never-ending spate of corporate scandals and financial crises. As the environmental limits and socially destructive tendencies of the current profit-driven economic model become...

The Problem with Banks
Lena Rethel and Timothy J. Sinclair
10 May 2012

Banks of all sorts are troubled institutions. The cost of public bail-outs associated with the subprime crisis in the United States alone may be as high as US$5 trillion. What is the problem with banks? Why do they seem to be at the centre of economic and financial turmoil down through the ages...

The Delusions of Economics
The Misguided Certainties of a Hazardous Science
Gilbert Rist
24 November 2011

In The Delusions of Economics, Gilbert Rist presents a radical critique of neoclassical economics from a social and historical perspective. Rather than enter into existing debates between different orthodoxies, Rist instead explores the circumstances that prevailed when economics was 'invented...

Economic Policy and Human Rights
Holding Governments to Account
Radhika Balakrishnan and Diane Elson
10 November 2011

Economic Policy and Human Rights presents a powerful critique of three decades of neoliberal economic policies, assessed from the perspective of human rights norms. In doing so, it brings together two areas of thought and action that have hitherto been separate: progressive economics concerned...

Debunking Economics - Revised and Expanded Edition
The Naked Emperor Dethroned?
Steve Keen
22 September 2011

Debunking Economics exposes what many non-economists may have suspected and a minority of economists have long known: that economic theory is not only unpalatable, but also plain wrong. When the original Debunking was published back in 2001, the market economy seemed invincible, and conventional...

Confronting Managerialism
How the Business Elite and Their Schools Threw Our Lives Out of Balance
Robert R. Locke and J.-C. Spender
8 September 2011

Confronting Managerialism offers a scathing critique of the crippling influence of neoclassical economics and modern finance on business school teaching and management practice. In doing so, Locke and Spender show how business managers who were once well-regarded as custodians of the economic...

The Global Minotaur
America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy
Yanis Varoufakis
18 August 2011

In this remarkable and provocative book, Yanis Varoufakis explodes the myth that financialisation, ineffectual regulation of banks, greed and globalisation were the root causes of the global economic crisis. Rather, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced all the way back...

Postcolonial Economies
Edited by Jane Pollard, Cheryl McEwan and Alex Hughes
12 May 2011

Postcolonial approaches to understanding economies are of increasing academic and political significance as questions about the nature of globalisation, transnational flows of capital and workers and the making and re-making of territorial borders assume centre stage in debates about...

Rethinking Macroeconomics for Sustainability
Alejandro Nadal
13 January 2011

Macroeconomic policies have devastating effects on the environment. They shape the economic processes that drive deforestation, soil erosion, the exhaustion of living marine resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and the massive loss of biodiversity. Despite this, the vital connection between...

The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism
The Collapse of an Economic Order?
Edited by Kean Birch and Vlad Mykhnenko
24 June 2010

The recent, devastating and ongoing economic crisis has exposed the faultlines in the dominant neoliberal economic order, opening debate for the first time in years on alternative visions that do not subscribe to a ‘free’ market ethic.

Bringing together the work of...

Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?
The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism
Milford Bateman
10 June 2010

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this...

Oil on Water
Tankers, Pirates and the Rise of China
Paul French and Sam Chambers
13 May 2010

Out of sight, out of mind. That's the general reaction to the crucial movement of oil around the world's oceans. Yet this vital supply chain that allows the world to function is constantly under enormous, largely unreported pressure. The uninterrupted flow of oil is essential to globalisation,...

Beyond the Profits System
Possibilities for a Post-Capitalist Era
Harry Shutt
11 March 2010

Since 2008, we have found ourselves confronted by an historic financial holocaust that world leaders have struggled to come to terms with. All have willfully ignored its long-term, systemic causes and are thus unable to chart a way to survival. As explained by Harry Shutt - who was almost alone...

The Economics Anti-Textbook
A Critical Thinker's Guide to Microeconomics
Rod Hill and Tony Myatt
11 March 2010

Mainstream textbooks present economics as an objective science free from value judgements; that settles disputes by testing hypotheses; that applies a pre-determined body of principles; and contains policy prescriptions supported by a consensus of professional opinion. The Economics Anti-...

The Truth about Trade
The Real Impact of Liberalization
Clive George
11 February 2010

Is it really true that the trade agreements pursued in the World Trade Organisation and through regional negotiations are vital for eliminating world poverty and achieving a sustainable future? Or is trade liberalization the villain of the piece? Clive George's provocative book examines the...

The Social Economy
International Perspectives on Economic Solidarity
Edited by Ash Amin
10 September 2009

As the current economic crisis spreads around the globe questions are being asked about what king of capitalist or post-capitalist economy will follow. There is increasing talk of the need for stringent economic regulation, the need to temper greed and individualism, to make the economy work...

The Trouble with Capitalism
An Enquiry into the Causes of Global Economic Failure
Harry Shutt
10 September 2009

The recent collapse of the banking system and instability in the financial markets has dramatically shaken confidence in the global economic order. Is the current variant of 'free market' capitalism really sustainable? The Trouble With Capitalism - originally written, with remarkable prescience...

Unholy Trinity
The IMF, World Bank and WTO
Richard Peet
14 May 2009

Who really runs the global economy? Who benefits most from it?

The answer is a triad of 'governance institutions' - The IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Globalization massively increased the power of these institutions and they drastically affected the livelihoods of peoples...