The Great Financial Crash of 2008 unleashed an exciting wave of new thinking about economics and about its relationship with politics and with society. As a result it is becoming clearer again that economics is not a science, it is a contested arena. In this book group we explore the most interesting of this wave of new thinking, reading books or articles chosen by group members and considering their implications for today’s politics.....

As there is a wide range of exciting and interesting books to read from, and people have different preferences, and we are interested in covering quite a lot of ground, some months we all read the same book but in others we may between group members read two or three that address the same issue from different standpoints (i.e. no-one reads more than one book).

We each jot down thoughts about the book chosen, no longer than a page of A4, and aim to share that by email a few days before. Some authors have produced good YouTube videos distilling key arguments, so we may also decide to view one of those together at a meeting. Some members currently take journals or magazines with excellent book summaries or relevant articles discussing the same theme, and will keep others informed about those.

For the full listing of the books or topics we've covered so far, have a look here.

To see how we have combined thinking from the different readings into multifaceted arguments see here:
How much do wise governments spend?
Nobody wants inflation – do they?
The role of the State in decarbonizing the economy.
We’re still influenced by decisions made in the 17th century.
 
If you want to join this group then use the email link at the top of the page or go through Beacon.