Ricardo's Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World - Nat Dyer

Come join Triangle Common Good in reading Ricardo's Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray by Nat Dyer.

In this book, the author critiques the tendency of classical economists to create "simple, abstract, numerical models to explain the social world", arguing that in the process, they have developed models that ignore aspects of material reality.

Looking specifically at the legacy of David Ricardo, the influential classical economist who developed the concept of "comparative advantage", the book argues this tendency towards abstractions in economics misses out on the material realities of the world.

Nat Dyer is a Fellow at Schumacher Institute who began his career as an anti-corruption investigator before working for Promoting Economic Pluralism and the International Institute for Environment and Development. This reading will be a chance to talk about pluralism in economics, a concept that will be relevant to some of our discussions so far.

Interview with Author
https://www.salon.com/2025/02/01/how-economics-wrecked-the-world-and-how-we-can-escape-from-ricardos-dream/

Need for Economic Pluralism and Mass Economic Literacy - Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5YO_4Y0x8I

Economics Pluralism and Empirical Turn in Economics - Oxford Economics Society
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3RlHf9SqsU