A Critical History of Economics

Why have centuries of economic thinking failed to achieve a combination of economic growth, full employment, low inflation, sustainability and avoidance of extreme poverty? John Mills argues that it has not done so because of the way in which economic thought has developed throughout its history. Tracing the evolution of the subject from the ancient world to the present, Mills demonstrates the remarkable extent to which a combination of intellectual error and social and political pressures have diverted the development of economic thinking away from finding effective answers to the pressing problems of the world.