The Need for a Serious Rethink on Economics

The perception that something is quite wrong with economics has surfaced recently with a fair degree of vigour. For example, the Economist (16 July 2009) carried a lead article titled “What Went Wrong with Economics”. This query was followed by several critiques of economics — all of course centred on the global financial crisis. To name a few, Nobel Laureate Stiglitz (2011) questions the validity of standard economic models and their imperfections whilst the Australian icon Quiggin (2013) notes the preoccupation with issues associated with the Phillips Curve since its advent in 1958. I believe that these greats and many others, who have reasoned about the failure of economics, have failed to grasp the fundamental source of the problem…