Maxton- Graeme P.

To fuel our economic growth, we scrape the planet of its resources, laying waste to more than we build. We do this to satisfy our desire for consumption, to spend ever more. To finance this, many people have borrowed more than they should. So millions have become burdened by debts, income inequalities have widened and many governments owe more than they can ever repay.

All this is the fault of modern economic thinking.

Wrong-headed economics was the cause of the financial crisis. It has brought us a mountain of debt. It has encouraged us to waste the world's resources without much thought for the consequences. It is behind the rise in individualism and the weakening of many democratic principles. It is the cause of over-population. It has provided China and many other developing countries with a dream that cannot come true. It has even warped our ideas of charity, social responsibility and progress.

Without a re-think, we face the end of growth. We face the end of progress. We face more poverty, greater conflict and rising ill-health. Life-expectancies will fall, as will standards of living. In the US and Europe, healthcare, savings and pension promises will be broken. In Africa, Asia and the Middle East hopes for development will not be met. Tensions between peoples will grow.

We need to ditch many modern economic ideas. Notions about the free-market, competition, regulation and trade need to be reconsidered. We need a different measure of progress. We need to put ourselves, our societies, back at the core of what we want to achieve.

In this thought-provoking, lively and entertaining book, Graeme Maxton looks at what brought us to this position and how we can shine some light onto the path ahead.