Breaking the Spell Economics has put on us

As someone who had the audacity to try to teach Economics in the 1970s, I try, every now and then, to make amends by listing a few books which do a rather better explanatory job. This is my latest effort

Economics is known as "the dismal science" – but is most decidedly NOT a science!

It has indeed become the new religion worshipped by policy-makers throughout 

the world. Its fallacies have such a grip on our minds that we need to throw 

aside our distaste for the subject and have the patience to read a few at least 

of the newer exposes. So I've prepared two lists – 

• some good introductions to the subject

• some well-written critiques of the discipline

Good Introductory Texts
- Almost Everyone’s Guide to Economics; JK Galbraith and N Salinger (1978) quite inspiring 

from one of the world's best writers and economists quizzed by a young French woman. 

I discovered it thanks to a great biography of the man by Stephen Dunn.
- Short Circuit – strengthening local economies in an unstable world” - Ronald Douthwaite 

(1996). Very practical – but also inspirational….almost 30 years on, it hasn’t really been 

bettered. Full text available at the link
- Debunking Economics – the naked emperor dethroned; Steve Keen (2001 and 2011) Written 

before the crash by an Australian, it might be called the first alternative textbook 

(except it’s much greater fun to read!). Can be read in full.

- Economics for Everyone – a short guide to the economics of capitalism”; Jim Stanford 
(2006) a Canadian economist, is a very user-friendly book and has an excellent 
“further reading” list which was probably the best there was at that time….

- Railroading Economics – the creation of the free market mythology Michael Perelman (2006)

- 23 Things they didn’t tell you about capitalism; Ha Joon-Chang (2010) superbly-written 

demolition job on the myths perpetrated on us by economists
- Economics Unmasked – from power and greed to compassion and the common good Philip Smith 
and Manfred Max-Neef (2011)
It was just a matter of Jungian synchronicity that the paths of the physicist and the 
economist had to converge. The encounter occurred in August 1996 in Amsterdam 
during the Congress of Challenges of Sustainable Development organized by the 
International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility.
 Philip and I were together in a workshop and developed an immediate empathy. 
Long and lively conversations followed in the two evenings we spent together walking 
along the Amsterdam channels and drinking some fine Chilean wines. Our friendship 
was consolidated. We exchanged frequent correspondence, and about five years later 
the idea arose that we might try to write a book together with the purpose of revealing 
how economics would look behind its mask of a supposedly hard, value-free, 
mathematical science. I invited Philip to come to Valdivia in Chile, where I was Rector 
of the University. He stayed for three months of intense, entertaining and often funny 
conversations about economics, social justice, transcendence, spirituality, chaos theory 
and quantum physics. We floated happily in a marvellous transdisciplinarity that brought 
us closer and closer to understanding the frustrated relationship between economics 
and the real world. We decided that Philip would write a draft of the first part of the book, 
concerned with the critical analysis of the development of economics, and I would later 
write an additional part, with proposals for a new economics coherent with the challenges 
of the twenty-first century. We discussed his drafts by mail, and we were in full agreement 
about the final versions that are presented in this book. When the time came for me to 
produce my part, I travelled to Groningen  to visit Philip and show him my contribution. 
Once again we were in full agreement, but unfortunately he was seriously ill at that time, 
and a few weeks later his heart abruptly weakened and he passed away on 15 December 
2005. As a result he never saw the final product, but I am sure that wherever he is he 
approves of it.
When I said goodbye to him, he told me: “Manfred, make sure that the book is
published; I want it to be my final testimony to the world.” I am, therefore, extremely happy 
that his testimony will endure.
The book is the work of both of us. However, Philip was mainly responsible for Chapters 2 
to 8; I was mainly responsible for Chapters 1 and 9 to 13. Although through the text we 
mostly use the word ‘we’, in Chapter 4 the ‘we’ has been replaced by ‘I’ because the chapter’s 
contents express a profoundly personal reflection of Philip about honesty and values. 
Nonetheless, it is a reflection with which I fully agree.
This joint intellectual and spiritual adventure with Philip has been one of the most enriching 
experiences in my life. It was also fascinating to personally witness how easy it is for natural 
scientists to discover the many inconsistencies and mathematical absurdities of economics 
once they decide to familiarize themselves with the discipline. His case was similar to that of 
Frederick Soddy, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who in the early 1920s wrote a couple of 
books through which it became evident that he understood economics better than most 
economists; for this he was of course ridiculed and excommunicated by the economics 
establishment, and his books were banned from the reading lists of students. 
Today Soddy’s truth remains untarnished, and I am sure that so will the truth of
Philip Smith.
- The Economics Book – big ideas simply explained ed Kishtany, Meadway et al (2012) 

Superbly presented graphically and chronogically, with short chapters on every imaginable topic
- Economics – the user’s guide Ha-Joon Chang (2014) Probably my favourite not least because 

it understands our repugnance about the subject and offers a way of reading the book. 

And because it accepts that it is not a science; recognises that there are various 

(very different) perspectives on the subject; and explains each 
- Economics for the Common Good; Jean Tirole (2017) A French Nobel-prizewinner offers 

a highly readable text – written in short chunks

- Economics – a crash course D Boyle and A Simms (2019)

- Good Economics for Hard Times Banerjee and Duflo (2019) common sense from a 

French/Belgian Nobel-prize winning couple
- How Economics can save the World Eric Angner 2022 a Swedish economist whose 

“further reading” highly recommends the introductory course “The Economy” 

https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/ whose first draft came out a decade ago

What is Economics For? - rethinking a discipline in crisis Richard Murphy (2026)
The most recent and, perhaps, the best!
CRITIQUES
- For the Common Good; Herman Daly and John Cobb (1989). The book which inspired a 

different approach to economics – written by a theologian (Cobb) and Herman Daley who 

for 6 years was the principal economist of the World Bank. But, by virtue of being a train 

blazer, not the easiest of reads
- Zombie Economics - how dead ideas still walk among us; by John Quiggin (2010) is a great 

read – with a self-explanatory title. He is an Australian author currently completing a book 

called Economics in Two Lessons…

- The Delusions of Economics – the misguided certainties of a hazardous science Gilbert Rist 2011. A Swiss anthropologist dares to critique the discipline!

- The Economics of Enough – how to run the economy as if the future matters; Diane Coyle 

(2011) A UK economist sets out a convincing alternative vision for developed European societies.
- Austerity – the history of a dangerous ides; Mark Blyth (2013) written by a political 

scientist/political economist, it shows how old theories still affect the contemporary world profoundly
- Economics of the 1% - how mainstream economics serves the rich, obscures reality and 

distorts policy; John F Weeks (2014) More of a critique but a text which is a must-read. 

One of the best introductions to the subject - which can't be faulted for being over-diplomatic!
- Credo – economic beliefs in a world of crisis; Brian Davey (2015) An alternative approach 

to economics which situates it in its cultural and historical context. It may be long (at 500 

pages) but is definitely worth persevering with.
- Vampire Capitalism – fractured societies and alternative futures; Paul Kennedy (2017) 

More of a sociological treatment which earns high points by stating in the very first sentence

 that it has “stood on the shoulders of so many giants that he is dizzy” and then proves the 

point by having an extensive bibliography with lots of hyperlinks…
- Doughnut economics – 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist; Kate Raworth (2017). 

This Oxford economist has made quite an impact with this book
- Economics in two lessons; John Quiggin (2019) Quiggin is another Australian economist 

which means a no-nonsense approach. Less introductory – more polemical
- What's Wrong with economics – a primer for the perplexed; Robert Skidelsky (2020) 

Skidelsky is the biographer of Keynes and as much an historian as economist. This is less 

an introductory text and more a polemic
- Cogs and Monsters – what economics is and what it should be Diane Coyle (2021)
An interesting overview of the debate which has been taking place in the last 

decade about the role of economics.