Jonathan Aldred

'It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society' Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About CapitalismOver the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things. And, asserts Jonathan Aldred in this revelatory new book, it's economics that's to blame.Licence to be Bad tells the story of how a group of economics theorists changed our world, and how a handful of key ideas, from free-riding to Nudge, seeped into our decision-making and, indeed, almost all aspects of our lives. Aldred reveals the extraordinary hold of economics on our morals and values. Economics has corrupted us. But if this hidden transformation is so recent, it can be reversed. Licence to be Bad shows us where to begin.

Economics is unavoidably central to any attempt to improve our quality of life, but most people do not know why, or how to question its underlying assumptions. The Skeptical Economist rejects the story told by other popular economics books. Responding to Western malaise about quality of life, and a growing curiosity about economics and its relevance to these concerns, Jonathan Aldred argues that economics is not an agreed body of knowledge or an objective science. In reality economics is built on ethical foundations - distinctive and controversial views about how we ought to live, what we value and why. This revealing and entertaining book exposes these hidden assumptions, and opens up the black box of modern economics to reveal that conventional wisdom is not what it appears to be. The Skeptical Economist will challenge us all to examine the assumptions behind the economics of our current way of life. It rediscovers the ethics at the heart of economics.

Economics is unavoidably central to any attempt to improve our quality of life, but most people do not know why, or how to question its underlying assumptions. The Skeptical Economist rejects the story told by other popular economics books. Responding to Western malaise about quality of life, and a growing curiosity about economics and its relevance to these concerns, Jonathan Aldred argues that economics is not an agreed body of knowledge or an objective science. In reality economics is built on ethical foundations - distinctive and controversial views about how we ought to live, what we value and why. This revealing and entertaining book exposes these hidden assumptions, and opens up the black box of modern economics to reveal that conventional wisdom is not what it appears to be. The Skeptical Economist will challenge us all to examine the assumptions behind the economics of our current way of life. It rediscovers the ethics at the heart of economics.