Economics is a broken science, living in a kind of Alice in Wonderland state believing in multiple, inconsistent, things at the same time. Prior to the financial crisis, mainstream economics argued simultaneously for small government on taxation, regulation and spending, but big government on monetary policy. After the financial crisis, economics is now arguing for more government spending and for less government spending.
The premise of this book is that the internal inconsistencies between economic theories - the apparently unresolvable debates between leading economists and the incoherent policies of our governments - are symptomatic of economics being in a crisis. Specifically, in a scientific crisis.
The good news is that, thanks to the work of scientist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, we know what needs to be done to fix a scientific crisis. Moreover, there are two scientists in particular whose ideas could show how to do this for economics: Charles Darwin, the man who discovered evolution, and William Harvey, doctor to King Charles I and the first man to understand blood flow and the workings of the human heart.
In Money, Blood and Revolution, bestselling financial writer George Cooper explains how the ideas of Darwin and Harvey could revolutionise economics, making it more scientific and understandable, and might even reveal the true origin of economic growth and inequality.
Taking readers on a gripping tour of scientific revolution, social upheaval and the secrets of money and debt, this is an unmissable read for anyone curious to understand how the world really works - and the amazing future of economics
List of Figures About the Author Preface 1. Introduction: The Broken Science To Crash Now or Later? Big Government, Small Government or Both? From Malign Neglect to Policy Paralysis Self-contradictory Truths We Have An Interesting Problem PART 1. SCIENCE 2. Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn - The Problem of incommensurability Two Flavours of Science: Mr Spock vs Captain Kirk Kuhn's Analysis and Economics 3. A Crisis in the Heavens Copernicus - The First and Most Important Revolutionary Early Astronomical Models - The problem of the wandering stars - The problem of retrograde motion - Ptolemy's Tragic Triumph The Copernican Revolution - Implications of the heliocentric model - After Copernicus Bruno & Galileo Copernicus's Achievement 4. Blood & Bacon Hippocrates and his Theory of the Humours - Galen's theory of blood flow - Vesalius - William Harvey's revolution Rejection and Acceptance Harvey, Bacon and the Shakespeare Controversy 5. Darwin's Theory of Species Early Ideas of Species The Discrepancies Alternative Theories of Species Darwin's Breakthrough The Rejection 6. Continents and Revolutions A Profusion of Explanations - Mountain formation - Balloon theory - Iceberg Theory - Continental drift Lessons of the Revolutions PART 2. ECONOMICS 7. Economics - Ripe for Revolution Economics in a State of Un-civil War - The classical and neoclassical schools of economics - The Austrian school of Economics - The libertarian school of Economics - Monetarist school - Keynesian school - Minsky's school - Marxist school Behavioural School Institutional School The Problem of Herding Economists Computational Complexity Conclusion 8. Borrowing From Mr Darwin The Ultimate Competitor Are we Competitors or Optimisers? - Darwin - The ultimatum game - The hedonic treadmill - The fashion and luxury industries and Veblen goods Some Thought Experiments on Competition vs. Optimisation Darwin Refutes Marx and Smith - Darwin vs the neoclassical school of economics - Darwin vs Marxism Darwin Refutes the Libertarians Summary 9. The Paradigm Shift An Unreasonably Brief Political History of the World A Circulatory Theory of Economic Growth Resolving the Scientific Crisis in Economics A Clear Economic Anatomy Striking the Balance Circulatory Growth & Monetary vs Keynesian Policy 10. Policy Implications The Fifth Labour of Hercules - First: stop the herd from adding to the problem - Second: change the course of the monetary river - Third: change the course of the fiscal river Conclusion Bibliography Index
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