13 June

Hard to describe some ideas in 10 words, but this one is a cracker, I think. Jacinda Ardern got a lot of press recently by saying economic growth would not be her government's sole measure of achievement. Some described this as a sort of 'Leftie' fantasy. But actually, economics itself originally agreed with her, it was called 'political economy' and dealt with the political dimension of economics, not just numbers. Then economists stripped all of the politics out, and turned it into pure mathematical models, that made them feel more scientific without all the messy political stuff. It was a power grab by them, to become a more prominent discipline, and it worked. Powerful interests realised this new maths-only economics was terrific for them too, because these new models meant you could ignore all the real-world aspects of economics and tweak the models with profound political effects, while looking like you were just following economic 'laws'. They entered into alliance with academic economists, for mutual benefit. And thus, the 'economy' was born - a pure mathematical model. Designed to funnel money up to the top tier of society.