Sack the Economists and Disband their Departments

Mainstream economists completely failed to anticipate the financial market crash of 2007-8. They then called it an unforeseeable event. This is a clear admission that they don’t understand how economies work. Yet many non-mainstream, marginalised economists gave clear warning of the approaching crash. This book shows how mainstream economics has not one but many fundamental flaws.

Mainstream economists completely failed to anticipate the financial market crash of 2007-8. They then called it an unforeseeable event. This is a clear admission that they don’t understand how economies work. Yet many non-mainstream, marginalised economists gave clear warning of the approaching crash. This book shows how mainstream economics has not one but many fundamental flaws. It is not a science, it is pseudo-science. It lacks scholarly rigour and integrity. Once you understand this, it is not a mystery why the mainstreamers missed the approaching crash, nor why wealth is so unequally distributed, why we are so materialistic and unfulfilled, and why the planet is being destroyed. But modern knowledge and systems ideas reveal market economies to be self-organising systems, and they can be managed to support dignified livelihoods in equitable societies that can survive into the indefinite future, with nature thriving along with them. 'This book raises many interesting questions, most importantly, why does anyone take economists seriously when it comes to discussing the economy?' - Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington D.C. 'Geoff Davies has a very good idea. Economics has locked itself into an intellectual cul-desac.Even its failure to anticipate the global economic crisis was not enough to force it out. So let’s sack the economists and let real scientists take over this vital but currently dangerous discipline.' - Steve Keen, Economist and author of the popular book Debunking Economics. 'With delightful wit and insightful analogies, geophysicist Geoff Davies dissects the inconsistencies — and the inanities — of mainstream economics.' - Sam Pizzigati, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C., and author of The Rich Don’t Always Win.

Dr. Geoffrey F. (Geoff) Davies is a scientist, author and commentator. Born to a farming family and growing up in Australia, Geoff's life has taken him to the USA and back and through several important stages - student, scientist, commentator, learning to be a real person (i.e. growing up some more), father, grandfather and Author Outside His Designated Field. These days he is less concerned with exploring the universe and more concerned with helping humanity to live sensibly with each other on the only planet we have. On economics: Geoff is the author of Economia (2004), the eBook The Nature of the Beast (self-published, 2012), and the eBook Sack the Economists (2013). The commentator: Geoff has contributed opinion pieces over many years to local newspapers and magazines. Since 2009 he has preserved them on the blog http://betternature.wordpress.com . He has long experience, in science and elsewhere, in assessing fractious debates on difficult topics. He has lectured on New Science and Old Wisdom and Playing With Superfire (the misapplication of technology to biological systems). The Scientist: Geoff is a retired Senior Fellow (now a Visiting Fellow) in geophysics at the Australian National University. He has authored over one hundred scientific papers and two scientific books and has a Hirsch index of 38 (38 papers each with at least 38 citations, indicating significant international standing and influence). In 2005 he was awarded the inaugural Augustus Love medal for geodynamics by the European Geosciences Union.  He was selected in 1992 as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. His most recent scientific book, Mantle Convection for Geologists, won the 2011 Mary B. Ansari Best Reference Work Award of the GeoScience Information Society.