Economic Science Fictions

Brought to you by Penguin. So much relies on science. But what if science itself can’t be relied on? Medicine, education, psychology, health, parenting – wherever it really matters, we look to science for advice. Science Fictions reveals the disturbing flaws that undermine our understanding...

In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe.

It's time for planet Earth to get a new perspective on economics; it's time to breathe new life into a boring subject; it's about time someone plays around with your economic fancies. Is it really about the money, or is it really about what money buys? Can you imagine a whole new economy centered on liberty and freedom, a world in which many call the root of evil takes a back seat to civilized bartering?

In Fortunes of Change, David Callahan contends that something big is happening among the rich in America: they're drifting to the left. When Callahan set out to write a book on the new upper class, he expected to profile a greedy and reactionary elite - the robber barons of a second Gilded Age. Instead, he discovered something else. While many of the rich still back a GOP that stands against taxes and regulation, liberalism is spreading fast among the wealthy. In Fortunes of Change, we meet an upper class increasingly filled with super-educated professionals and entrepreneurs who work in "knowledge" industries.

An act of terrorism brings the financial system to a grinding halt. Premeditated violence and waves of unrest sweep across the continent. In a time of polarization and distrust, a more sinister force is behind this attempt to bring about a new America. However, this political subterfuge is met with violent opposition. In the confusion, the coast-to-coast chaos takes on a life of its own, bringing about a sudden collapse of American civilization.