Economists and economics have been harshly criticised recently. This book accepts many of the criticisms of conventional theory but argues that the fundamental insights of economics are capable of reinterpretation and reinvention to deal with a host of contemporary concerns – social networks, globalisation, pay inequality, climate change, automation and the growth of `nudge’ policy amongst many others. The author uses his weekly column in the London business newspaper City A.M. to explain new developments in economic thinking and empirical research to a general audience. This book reproduces many of his most provocative columns with accompanying commentary and full references. The author’s witty and informed analysis of events provides an ideal introduction to important ideas for anybody interested in how the modern economy works.

Paul Ormerod is an economist, author and entrepreneur. He is currently a Visiting Professor at University College, London (UCL), where he supervises graduate students in machine learning. Paul read economics at Cambridge and took an MPhil in economics at Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences in 2006, and in 2009 was awarded a DSc honoris causa by the University of Durham for `the distinction of your contribution to economics’. In addition to economic journals, he has published in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), and Evolution and Human Behavior. Paul has published four best-selling books on economics, Death of Economics, Butterfly Economics, Why Most Things Fail and Positive Linking. He has also written for the IEA on many occasions. He was a founder of the Henley Centre for Forecasting Ltd., which the management sold to Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group in the 1990s.