Jonathan Aldred

licence-to-be-bad

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Kate-Atkinson

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

Licence to be Bad

Discover the Penguin books that shaped us

[A] fascinating assault on modern economic orthodoxy... It is a call for us all to put aside our prejudices - some of which have been invented for us, decades ago - and ask, is this what we need? Is it even what we really want?

In this highly enlightening and hugely entertaining book, Jonathan Aldred guides us through the badlands of modern economics, revealing its pitfalls, quicksand, and quagmires. It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society.

Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism and Economics: The User's Guide

This an important and timely book, the best I have recently read on the subject of 'whither economics?'

An entertaining, wide-ranging and often challenging argument. Aldred writes exceptionally well and there is much here to agree with ... It's impossible to do justice to the sheer range of issues tackled.

Illuminating ... an unusual approach to critiquing the modern economic canon.

How Economics Corrupted Us

Over the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things. And, asserts Jonathan Aldred in this revelatory book, it's economics that's to blame. 
 
Licence to be Bad tells the story of how a group of economics theorists changed our world, and how a handful of key ideas seeped into our decision-making and, indeed, almost all aspects of our lives. Aldred reveals the extraordinary hold of economics on our morals and values. Economics has corrupted us. But if this hidden transformation is so recent, it can be reversed. Licence to be Bad shows us where to begin.

'It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society' Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism 
 
Over the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things. And, asserts Jonathan Aldred in this revelatory new book, it's economics that's to blame. 
 
Licence to be Bad tells the story of how a group of economics theorists changed our world, and how a handful of key ideas, from free-riding to Nudge, seeped into our decision-making and, indeed, almost all aspects of our lives. Aldred reveals the extraordinary hold of economics on our morals and values. Economics has corrupted us. But if this hidden transformation is so recent, it can be reversed. Licence to be Bad shows us where to begin.

Jonathan Aldred is a Fellow and Director of Studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Licence to be Bad

How Economics Corrupted Us

Format:

Buy the book from:

[A] fascinating assault on modern economic orthodoxy... It is a call for us all to put aside our prejudices - some of which have been invented for us, decades ago - and ask, is this what we need? Is it even what we really want?

In this highly enlightening and hugely entertaining book, Jonathan Aldred guides us through the badlands of modern economics, revealing its pitfalls, quicksand, and quagmires. It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society.

This an important and timely book, the best I have recently read on the subject of 'whither economics?'

An entertaining, wide-ranging and often challenging argument. Aldred writes exceptionally well and there is much here to agree with ... It's impossible to do justice to the sheer range of issues tackled.

Illuminating ... an unusual approach to critiquing the modern economic canon.

About Jonathan Aldred

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter