Manchester University Press Pound and the Fury: Why Anger and Confusion Reign in an Economy Paralysed by Myth

What’s wrong with the UK economy? Everyone has an opinion. But no one has an answer. Why?For decades the UK economy has failed ordinary people. A small minority make obscene profits, while the rest are plagued by stagnant wages, underemployment, and the rising cost of basic goods like healthcare, education and housing. Meanwhile, we hurtle headlong towards an environmental emergency. There is no shortage of anger and anti-elite sentiment expressed in ‘the culture wars.’ But no challenge to our current economic model has broken into the mainstream.The pound and the fury argues that behind this failure of imagination are a set of myths about how the economy works. Myths that stifle debate and block change. This book analyses the origins of these myths. It asks how they might be dispelled at a time when, away from the public gaze, economic theory is opening up new possibilities of economic action. Possibilities that, as we emerge from the chaos of COVID-19, could lead to the radical structural changes we desperately need.A gripping and brilliant examination of the lies and misconceptions that keep the UK in a state of furious paralysis, Jack Mosse’s passionate debut forces us to cut through the noise and look for real solutions. This book argues that misconceptions about the economy are rife in the general population and that this democratic deficit is caused by institutional bias and wilful misrepresentation at our most powerful institutions. Through interviews with people from both elite and everyday spaces in the UK, this book exposes the structures of institutional bias that distort public perceptions and understandings of the economy. Autorid: Jack Mosse