The Financial Crash that convulsed the world in 2008 had cataclysmic effects on the global economy, and took conventional economists completely by surprise. Many leading commentators, taken in by the hubris of economics, declared shortly before the crisis that the magical recipe for eternal stability had been found. Less than a year later, the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression erupted.

In this compelling and explosive book, Steve Keen, one of the very few economists who anticipated the crash, shows why the self-declared experts were wrong and offers a...