{"id":92809,"date":"2026-06-04T07:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92809"},"modified":"2026-06-04T07:14:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:14:27","slug":"out-now-what-is-economics-for-rethinking-a-discipline-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/06\/04\/out-now-what-is-economics-for-rethinking-a-discipline-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Out now: &#8216;What is Economics For? Rethinking a Discipline in Crisis&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have, this morning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/downloads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">added a new e-book to our PDF download site<\/a>. This is the combined collection based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/09\/15\/the-economic-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Economic Thinker Series<\/a> published here between September last year and March this year. The book has a new title:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-92810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-550x778.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-550x778.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-212x300.png 212w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-768x1086.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-1086x1536.png 1086w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover-283x400.png 283w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Econ-thinkers-cover.png 1414w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The combined collection includes a new foreword and introduction, as well as introductions to each chapter, because I felt the series needed framing. I hope that they add value.<\/p>\n<p>As I note in the book, there are 50 thinkers in it precisely because I went to university 50 years ago to study economics. I had already done an A-level in the subject, and I have been studying it ever since.<\/p>\n<p>There is, however, a second anniversary to celebrate. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2006\/06\/08\/truth-avoidance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">8 June marks<\/a> the 20th anniversary of this blog, and publishing this e-book now does, for me, indicate just how far it has come from the very early days when it was almost entirely a commentary on offshore tax abuse, which is now a topic that appears here only infrequently.<\/p>\n<p>In those 20 years, as in the 30 that preceded them, I have changed, this blog has changed, and so has the world. I think that in the first two cases, this might be for the better. As for the world, the disastrous impact of neoliberalism means I cannot say that, although there have been some advances, not least in tackling offshore tax abuse.<\/p>\n<p>The current state of our economy, human well-being, the environment and biosphere, democracy, and all forms of justice suggests that the need for radical economic thinkers and moral philosophers is as pressing as ever.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/downloads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Like all our PDF downloads<\/a>, this one is free. You will be asked whether you wish to make a donation; it is entirely up to you, though we would, of course, be grateful if you did.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/downloads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Please download this book<\/a> and share it widely if you can. I think it has something useful to say. I hope you agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have, this morning, added a new e-book to our PDF download site. This is the combined collection based on the Economic Thinker Series published<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/06\/04\/out-now-what-is-economics-for-rethinking-a-discipline-in-crisis\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,227,35,147,174,224,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economic-questions","category-economics","category-inequality","category-modern-monetary-theory","category-neoliberalism","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92853,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92809\/revisions\/92853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}