Miguel Afonso Caetano<p>Ha-Joon Chang is totally right. Economics is heading towards total irrelevance - mostly because it has severed all ties with political science and the study of power.</p><p>"Neoclassical economics has become the Aeroflot of ideas. A friend recalls that after asking for a vegetarian meal on a flight with the Soviet airline in the 1980s, he was told: “No, you cannot. Everybody’s equal on Aeroflot. It’s a socialist airline. There’s no special treatment.” The same logic applies in today’s economics departments: you’re free to choose — as long as it’s neoclassical chicken.</p><p>But real life is not one-size-fits-all. The complex challenges of our time require imaginative solutions, not endless variations on the failed theme of efficient markets. We need a more nuanced approach and to understand the economy not from a purely economic point of view, but also from political, social and psychological perspectives. Reforming economics curricula is not an academic distraction — it’s a societal imperative. </p><p>We need to push for an economics education that is more pluralist, ethically aware, historically grounded and relevant to the real world.<br>(...)<br>While we can expect further dismissals from the discipline’s high priests, we also know that they are on the defensive. The cracks are showing and the demand for change is growing. Even the staunchest defenders of orthodoxy will eventually have to listen. </p><p>I remain an optimist. Two hundred years ago, buying and selling people was legal in many countries. A hundred years ago, women were jailed for demanding the right to vote. Progress never comes easily. You can’t simply hope that societies will evolve in the right direction. You have to fight to change them."</p><p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9aabb4a9-d896-4b4c-a40a-1c4477a47a29" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">ft.com/content/9aabb4a9-d896-4</span><span class="invisible">b4c-a40a-1c4477a47a29</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Economics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Economics</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/SocialSciences" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SocialSciences</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/NeoclassicalEconomics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NeoclassicalEconomics</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Capitalism</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Neoliberalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Neoliberalism</span></a></p>