Quantum Economics

A decade after the financial crisis, there is a growing consensus that economics has failed and needs to go back to the drawing board. David Orrell argues that it has been trying to solve the wrong problem all along.Economics sees itself as the science of scarcity. Instead, it should be the science of money (which plays a surprisingly small role in mainstream theory). And money is a substance that turns out to have a quantum nature of its own.Just as physicists learn about matter by studying the exchange of particles at the subatomic level, so economics should begin by analysing the nature of money-based transactions. Quantum Economics therefore starts with the meaning of the phrase 'how much' - or, to use the Latin word, quantum. From quantum physics to the dualistic properties of money, via the emerging areas of quantum finance and quantum cognition, this profoundly important book reveals that quantum economics is to neoclassical economics what quantum physics is to classical physics - a genuine turning point in our understanding.

As money becomes more digital and diffuse, it also becomes more quantum. In this timely and illuminating book, David Orrell brings us to the frontier of where economics, physics and psychology intersect. You'll never look at money the same again!, Reading David Orrell's Quantum Economics is equivalent to playing a game of 3-D chess against the concept of value itself. The book easily switches between physical, economic and metaphysical conceptions of value, revealing their hidden parallels and paradoxes. The result is at once an explanation of our current economic predicament, a diagnosis of how we got there and a credible guide to the sort of "out of the box" thinking that is likely to get us out of it. After you've forgotten about the latest wheeze about the financial crisis, you'll be returning to this book. What is perhaps most surprising about it is just how readable -- yet thoroughly researched -- it is., Orrell gives economic theory a much-needed shove into the world of science - understandable, fascinating, thought-provoking and ground-breaking., Beautifully written, inherently ethical, and often hilarious, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the weird, and getting weirder, world of modern finance.', Rich with suggestive insights on every page and written in an accessible style, this book will both engage and infuriate its audience. For those of us who feel trapped in the professional cocoons of the like-minded, this book offers a chance to escape from the iron cages we have built.

David Orrell is a scientist and writer of books on science and economics. According to the Sunday Times 'Orrell is an engaging and witty writer, adept at explaining often complicated theories in clear language.' His latest books are The Money Formula: Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science, and How Mathematicians Took Over the Markets, written with Paul Wilmott; and Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong (Icon Books, 2017).