What 50 years has taught me

Fifty years ago, in the long hot summer of 1976, I went to university to study economics. Since that time, I have spent half a century reading, writing, teaching, researching, campaigning, and thinking about that subject in some way or other.

To mark that anniversary, and the twentieth anniversary of the Funding the Future blog from which this YouTube channel grew, I have written a new free ebook examining fifty thinkers who have shaped my understanding of economics and society.

Some are familiar names, including John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Amartya Sen, Stephanie Kelton and Steve Keen.

Others may come as a surprise as the book also includes philosophers, scientists, campaigners and social critics whose ideas helped me understand how economies really work, why societies succeed or fail, and what creates human wellbeing.

In this video, I explain why I wrote the book, how my fascination with economics began through reading railway history as a teenager, and why I still believe ideas matter. The questions these thinkers raised about money, markets, power, justice, democracy and human flourishing remain as important today as ever.

The ebook is more than 200 pages long and is available free of charge. There is no obligation to donate. My aim is simply to share the ideas that have influenced me over the last fifty years and to encourage debate about the kind of economy and society we want to create.

You can download the ebook using the link below. If you do read it, I would be delighted to hear what you think.