It is said that the economy is depressed, but that is just one side of the story. The economy, in fact, has been mis-diagnosed: it is manic-depressive. Where is this error taking us? “Does capitalism work? How do we get back on the side of growth?” Firstly we should ask ourselves whether we are actually asking the right questions. Perhaps, instead, “Is capitalism working in the way we want it to work? Why do we need growth? Or is this just a fetish, drawn up on the way to paradise”? Tomáš Sedláček is the chief economist of the biggest Czech bank. He bases his activities on the belief that it is better to live as a critic within the system, than to cut oneself off from it. With The Economics of Good and Evil he has presented a book that not only radically breaks with traditional conceptions of economics, but also provides unconventional proposals for a completely new economic order.
in English
Tomáš Sedláček (*1977) is the Chief Macro-Economist of CSOB Bank, lectures at Charles University, and is a member of the National Economic Council in Prague. He worked as an advisor to Václav Havel, the first Czech President after the fall of communism, and is a regular columnist and popular radio and TV commentator. In 2009 he published Economics of Good and Evil, a book on philosophy, ethics, and a history of economic thought which has unexpectedly become a international bestseller.