This cogent critique of the narrowness and moral blindness of conventional economics, and its distance from any genuine concern for people's lives, is part autobiographical reflection and part summation of a lifetime's work in developing countries. Ladislau Dowbor rejects both old-fashioned statist economics and utopian 'post-economics' ideas of social organization. Instead, he pulls together a rich mixture of detailed and practical conclusions about economic and social policy, drawing on his own work as an economic adviser in countries as diverse as Poland, Portugal, Guinea Bissau,...