Renowned economist and former Labour politician Meghnad Desai in his new book takes a critical look at the bodies of thought that have driven economics across the world and studies its contributions to domestic and international politics.
Published by HarperCollins, "The Poverty of Political Economy" studies the ideas first presented by the likes of Adam Smith, and John Maynard Keynes and through events of global importance such as the Great Depression and the fall of the Lehman Brothers.
In a statement, Desai said the book is a "distillation of a lifetime's thinking and debating about economics" as he looks at fundamental and radical questions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Economics has been for too long soft on the well-to-do and hard on the poor. The time has come to overturn this bias. I trace how it was the struggle for universal franchise which made economics more oriented towards the poor. But that legacy of Pigou has been lost in the debates about Keynes and Monetarism. I propose a revisit to economics of redistribution for the twenty-first century," Desai said.
The book asks necessary questions as to how changes in the international order have affected the making of economies and how to reinvent the way that economic policies are formed in the aftermath of Covid-19.
"In this brave new book, Lord Meghnad Desai brings his considerable expertise as an economist, along with a lot of innovative thinking, to the subject of how economics deals with poverty. As is his wont, he does not hesitate to ask the difficult questions, make razor sharp critiques, and suggest ways to a more equitable economics and indeed, a more compassionate world," Swati Chopra, associate publisher, HarperCollins India, said. The book will hit the stands on December 9.
(With PTI inputs)
