The Poets’ Guide to Economics could not have been more tailored to capture the eye and the imagination of an economist like me, with a different perspective, idea and vision on economics.
“Economics matter. Bad policies, based on mistaken theories, led to an economic collapse at the end of the 1920s. This set the scene for world-wide conflict in the 1930s. Will today’s economists make a better fist of the 2020s? The years of Keynesian plenty are long gone. Economics seems to be in trouble- too entrenched to be stormed from outside, too narrow to cope on its own. A spate of recent books suggest that prominent economists are worried.In Good Economics for Hard Times (2019), the Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee call for a change of course and conclude:
Economics is too important to be left to economists.
Or, as Robert Skidelsky puts it In What’s Wrong with Economics (2020):
The task is no less than to reclaim economics for humanities.
If Coleridge, Shelley, Scott and the others are looking down from Parnassus they would surely agree, and beg us to pay attention”.- John Ramsden in his introduction to The Poets’ Guide to Economics
Without humanity, economics is a house of cards built on shifting sands.
Economics is not a hard science like physics. Incomprehensible mathematical models, praising the praises of the efficient market hypothesis and the rational expectations hypothesis, for example, will never be able to explain who we are, what we are, where have we come from, where are we going, what is the purpose of this journey we call life, or explain why we behave as we do. A much broader perspective is needed. A good economist is the one who knows what it means and what it entails to be human, first and foremost. Today’s economists must heed the wise words of one of the most influential thinkers of the Victorian age, the political economist, John Stuart Mill, when he said,“A man is not likely to be a good economist if he is nothing else”. Carpe diem!
I look forward to a day when students of economics and their teachers are required to study creativity and be inspired by the work of poets, artists, mystics, musicians, sculptors, philosophers of love, and peacemakers. I look forward to a day when students start their day by reciting poetry,to bring meaning and purpose into the study of economics, grounding them in the realities of what it means to be human. I dream of a time when economic textbooks, as well as addressing how we make money and how we may manage the economy, would also speak of the need for beauty, intimacy, kindness, empathy, cooperation, enoughness, frugality, simplicity, friendship, fairness, community and love, on who and what we are, and on what it means to be a human.
Economics and What it Means to Be Human Written by: Kamran Mofid
The Poets’ Guide to Economics
‘John Ramsden’s new book recalls a time when economics wasn't just the preserve of economists. In The Poets’ Guide to Economics, Ramsden walks through the unexpected economic insights of 11 famous poets…Central to the book is the idea of who ‘should’ think about economics, who ‘should’ write about it, and who we ‘should’ listen to. The answers are sometimes surprising. The Poets’ Guide to Economics reminds us of a time when economics was ‘political economy’ and a discipline that grounded itself in common experience. It highlights that poets felt they had the right to expound on economics – and to be taken seriously too.’-Hermione Taylor in Investors’ Chronicle (15 July 2022)
An engaging look at what poets from Daniel Defoe to Ezra Pound have had to say about ‘the dismal science’ or in the wise words of John Ruskin: ‘the bastard science’
Poetic dividends and bonuses for the betterment of economics
A study of literary men, poets and philosophers of love who engaged with economic affairs, more on these later.
First and Foremost- Lest We Forget
This is why, I firmly believe that economics and business students MUST engage with poets and poetry
The Theft of the Century by the Most 'Educated Thieves'- All with MBAs and PhDs!
Britain Has Become a Sinking Ship of Systemic Corruption, Cronyism and Chumocracy
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students?
‘Poetry, The Landscapes of the Soul, The Path to Serenity’
‘Poetry has a power to inspire change like no other art form’- Kate North
“Reading or writing poetry creates a space for empathy, for seeing another person, for bearing witness to our common humanity. Poetry, and the arts more generally, allow that chance to be human together with our patients…Empathy is essential for our survival . . . without empathy, how would we heal?”... “When we hear rhythmic language and recite poetry, our bodies translate crude sensory data into nuanced knowing . . . feeling becomes meaning.”-Poet and physician Rafel Campo, M.D.
Poetry, contemplation and reflection: finding ourselves on pilgrimage of self-discovery
Rocking out … stone circle at Avebury, Wiltshire. Photo: Alamy, Via The Guardian
“Now I am made one with You and from that Union my heart is consumed with rapture and my tongue is bewildered. By union, I have been merged in the Unity, I am become altogether apart from all else. I am You and You are I - nay, not I, all is altogether You. I have passed away, ‘I’ and ‘You’ no more exist. We have become one and I have become altogether You”--Farid ud-Din Attar, one of the most ancient poets of Persia
When there is no beauty and humanity present, there would be no vision, harmony, equilibrium, or hope
In all my academic life, spanning over four decades, teaching economics, I have been dismayed, frustrated and overwhelmed with pain to notice that our economics and business education models and teaching have not embraced beauty and the wisdom of our poets and the philosophers of love, incorporating them into the teaching curriculum.
This, to my mind, has seriously deprived our students, our future leaders, or indeed, our current leaders, to get a wholesome, values-led education, and thus, has prevented them from the needed vision to implement policies to heal our world, and to better our lives.
These days we talk about economics, politics, money, and shopping. We talk about profit maximisation and cost minimisation, the highest returns to the shareholders, bonuses for the CEOs. We talk about deregulation, liberalisation, marketisation. We then talk about economic growth and more growth even though nobody knows what for!
But we don’t talk much, if any at all, about respect, honour, trust, or beauty, or arts, or philosophical questions. It seems nobody has the time for it! Money is all that matters. Somewhere along the line, the idea of beauty and humanity has become blurred. And today we are left with ugliness everywhere.
This was not the case in yesteryears. Poetry was an important ingredient of teaching. I recall fondly when as a child and young adult our poetry reciting sessions in school and high school years.
But these days, as Joseph Coelho, the Waterstones children’s laureate has noted, poetry in the classrooms has been sidelined and pushed aside. He notes that nearly a quarter of schools teach poetry only once a year or less. What a shame that is!
But now, I hope with the publication of The Poets' Guide to Economics, poetry can gain its rightful place as a staple in all our classrooms at the departments of economics and business schools around the world; as a way to show students ‘how their words, their worlds, their thoughts and their opinions have the power to move souls and thrum hearts.’
The Joy of Discovering a New Book
All said and done, I was delighted when recently I discovered a true gem, a book that is music to my ear, a book written from the heart and a book that landed on my heart. It very much resonated with me, confirming what I had also discovered years ago, the wondrous power of poetry, the wisdom of poets and philosophers of love, past and present, maintaining our link to humanity and goodness.
I am a retired academic economist with 45 years of teaching economics and business at different universities in different countries and continents. The lessons that I have learned myself are that good economists must, first and foremost, know what it means to be human.
To my mind, lest we forget, the best economist is the one who discovers and begins to know deeply and passionately what is, hope, fear, kindness, empathy, desire, wisdom, beauty, need, justice, security, harmony, peace, love, compassion, so that they are empowered and enabled to make sense of the world and their place in it; challenging the status quo, shining light and inspire movements for change, building a better world, not for a few, but for the many.
Years ago, I discovered that, poetry is one of the most powerful ways of that discovery and that inspiring path:
'I learnt my love of mysticism and appreciation of mystic poetry from my late father, a businessman by trade and a connoisseur of Sufi poetry by tradition. For my father, nothing was more sacred than poetry — specifically the Persian mystical poetry. To him the Persian poets were the true sages, the gems of humanity, the philosophers of love, beauty and wisdom.
I remember he used to tell me all the time that, Kamran ‘These mystical poets can help you lead a better life, I am sure when you get older you will discover that for yourself.’ Reflecting back now, I can only say how right he was.
A few years back, when I came to realise that there was something amiss with much of the things that I had learnt about Western modern economics, its lack of moral and spiritual values, it was Rumi and other Persian sages such as Sa'adi and Hafez who came to my assistance in founding Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative, to bridge the divide between East and West, and to enable me to connect my intellect and my humanity. They enabled me to discover life’s bigger picture, beyond profit maximisation, cost minimisation, the so-called market forces, privatisation, deregulation, and free trade and more…’-Reflecting on Life: My Childhood in Iran where the love of poetry was instilled in me
Poetry is the Education that Nourishes the Heart and Nurtures the Soul
World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Poetry
Now, reverting back to what I had mentioned at the start of this posting:
The Poets' Guide to Economics
The Poets’ Guide to Economics is John Ramsden’s attempt to locate poetry in the work of famous authors, who through their writings concerned themselves with economic affairs as well as artistic or literary matters.
Photo credit: The History of Literature Podcast
‘Shelley called poets, ‘the unacknowledged legislators of the world’. Here John Ramsden describes their now largely forgotten contribution to economics. From Defoe to Pound, poets looked at the economic orthodoxy of their day, saw much that was unacceptable, and tried to suggest alternatives. Some of their suggestions led onto perilous ground; but many of their criticisms have since been vindicated. Often witty and always opinionated, these 11 writers offer fresh perspectives on the economic theories that still rule our lives.
The poets included are Defoe, Swift, Coleridge, Scott, Shelley, de Quincey, Ruskin, Morris, Shaw, Belloc and Pound. Together they span a vast range of opinion and knowledge of the world. Some were closely involved with policy, some were radical, even revolutionary, others were reactionary: all of them contributed very personal and often illuminating insights into the dismal science.’
A short note about John Ramsden
‘After reading history & economics at Cambridge and two years in a merchant bank, John Ramsden joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1975. He was posted in Dakar and Vienna, and then spent two years in Hanoi (chronicled in Hanoi After the War, Skira 2017). He spent the rest of his career in Europe, including a secondment to the Treasury and posts in Berlin (1990-93), the UN in Geneva and Croatia (as Ambassador from 2004-2008). He has also written The Box in the Attic, based on letters from relatives who took part in some of the great events of the last century.’
Read more and buy the book HERE
Listen to 439 Poets' Guide to Economics (with John Ramsden) on The History of Literature Podcast
HERE watch John Ramsden eloquently reflecting and explaining more about The Poets' Guide to Economics