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    Unavailable
    Economyths: How the Science of Complex Systems is Transforming Economic Thought
    Unavailable
    Economyths: How the Science of Complex Systems is Transforming Economic Thought
    Unavailable
    Economyths: How the Science of Complex Systems is Transforming Economic Thought
    Ebook354 pages6 hours

    Economyths: How the Science of Complex Systems is Transforming Economic Thought

    By David Orrell

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    From the inability of wealth to make us happier, to our catastrophic blindness to the credit crunch, "Economyths" reveals ten ways in which economics has failed us all. Forecasters predicted a prosperous year in 2008 for financial markets - in one influential survey the average prediction was for an eleven per cent gain. But by the end of the year, the Standard and Poor's 500 index - a key economic barometer - was down 38 per cent, and major economies were plunging into recession. Even the Queen asked - Why did no one see it coming? An even bigger casualty was the credibility of economics, which for decades has claimed that the economy is a rational, stable, efficient machine, governed by well-understood laws. Mathematician David Orrell traces the history of this idea from its roots in ancient Greece to the financial centres of London and New York, shows how it is mistaken, and proposes new alternatives. "Economyths" explains how the economy is the result of complex and unpredictable processes; how risk models go astray; why the economy is not rational or fair; why no woman (until 2009) had ever won the Nobel Prize for economics; why financial crashes are less Black Swans than part of the landscape; and, finally, how new ideas in mathematics, psychology, and environmentalism are helping to reinvent economics.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIcon Books
    Release dateMay 6, 2010
    ISBN9781848311992
    Unavailable
    Economyths: How the Science of Complex Systems is Transforming Economic Thought
    Author

    David Orrell

    David Orrell is an applied mathematician and author of popular-science books. He studied mathematics at the University of Alberta and obtained his doctorate from Oxford University on the prediction of nonlinear systems. His book Apollo's Arrow: The Science of Prediction and the Future of Everything was a national bestseller and finalist for the 2007 Canadian Science Writers' Award, and his book Economyths: Ten Ways Economics Gets It Wrong was a finalist for the 2011 National Business Book Award.

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    Reviews for Economyths

    3.5/5

    18 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Economyths is written in equal parts flourish and frustration as the author frequently points out the ignorance of the main heroes of (what he calls) neoclassical economics theory while in turns celebrating their lofty aims, which he understands as ultimately wanting help relieve the world of inequity.

      While he disparages orthodox economics as "ideology", the author's understanding of ideology seems weak and often merely rhetorical. In the end, he characterises economists as schizophrenics who, regarding themselves as detached from both the object of their study and even their own selves, have constructed grotesquely out-of-touch self-fulfilling models that only serve the interests of the few beneficiaries of financial markets.

      Except for the strangely out-of-place tangent on Georg Cantor's proof of the uncountability of irrational numbers, the two chapters (5 & 6) "The Emotional Economy" and "The Gendered Economy" could stand as worth-while reads on their own. The book should be read for the author's creative insights in just these two parts, I think.

      For me, the book felt educational (I am a humble engineer and philosophy student, after all — no applied mathematician), and it was definitely entertaining and engaging. I imagine any reader would be left with the impression that the author was exasperated with mainstream economics, but by the end, it becomes clear that this exasperation arises only because the author wants economics to move away from its misguided roots in deterministic, mechanistic social engineering and instead do a better job of modeling the messy network of human activities that comprise the global markets.
    • 4/5
      Very quick but convincing book that argues that all neo-liberal economics is a load of rubbish. I particularly liked the historical perspective on the fundamental tenets of economics - the desperate desire to make the discipline appear like physics is responsible for a lot of the false certainty and hubris of modern economics. The book does lose momentum towards the end, though is more a reflection of tje glorious shoeing the author dishes out to economists in the first few chapters than anything else. The only chapter that didn't work was the one on gender, which was confused and confusing.