This book takes a detailed look at four major financial crises—the twin crises of the South Sea Bubble in Britain and the Mississippi Bubble in France in 1720; the Great Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression; and the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-9. It traces the evolution and causes of the crises by reference to a theory of support-bargaining and money-bargaining, set out in earlier work, but reintroduced here with specific reference to financial crises. Two early chapters f...

For many decades economists have disputed with economic anthropologists over the origins of money. Economists claim that money emerged from barter exchange; anthropologists claim that it originated as a ‘unit of account’ in the temples and palaces of ancient Mesopotamia. This book argues that money originated as a bargaining counter in a system of money-bargaining, emerging almost seamlessly from barter-bargaining. This is not the ‘money’ of mainstream economic conception – a ‘veil’ cast o...

Support-Bargaining, Economics and Society links support-bargaining to Darwin's theory of natural selection and traces the implications of support-bargaining and money-bargaining across society. It provides a wholly different account of the functioning of human societies from anything that has gone before. Social scientists, ever since there have been such people, have missed the crucial human characteristic – the propensity to seek support – that has given rise to group formation ...

Economics for an Information Age examines the central role of information within economics and society. The neoclassical economic model, taught as ‘mainstream economics’ in universities around the world, relies on a mathematical model of ‘resource allocation’ in which private advantage gives rise to public advantage in the shape of an optimal allocation of resources. However, this model assumes ‘perfect information’. In the present ‘information age’ such an assumption is even fart...

It is clear even to casual observation that economies evolve from year to year and over centuries. Yet mainstream economic theory assumes that economies always move towards equilibrium. One consequence of this is that mainstream theory is unable to deal with economic history.The Evolution of Economies provides a clear account of how economies evolve under a process of support-bargaining and money-bargaining. Both support-bargaining and money-bargaining are situation-related - peopl...

This book provides an introduction to the theory of support-bargaining and money-bargaining. Support-bargaining arises from the propensity of all individuals to seek the support of those around them and is the underlying mechanism of democratic societies. It is also the underlying mechanism of theory formation. Intellectual support-bargaining is the process by which support is assembled for ideas and theories.Mainstream economic theory, or ‘neoclassical theory’, can be seen as form...