About

Welcome to Ecommonics - a place where we hope to inspire a new Common Sense about Economics. You'll notice that a lot of what we talk about here is a play on the word "Common". Our various posts and pages deal with issues such as Common Ground (inequality), Common Wealth (poverty), Plain 'n Common Happiness (you guessed it...happiness) and Tragedy of the Common Sense (environment, alluding to the famous paper, Tragedy of the Commons).*  So what's all this Commonness about, then?

The Commons is an economic concept that's making a comeback, and we want to promote it, along with other, alternative views on Economics. The Commons is a fairly simple, but very powerful idea - the idea that some things are meant to be created and enjoyed by human beings in common. Healthcare, for instance, is something that might have some characteristics of a private good, but it should be provided and managed as if it were a common good - something that everyone deserves equal access to and enjoyment of. Libraries, wildlife, the Internet and history are all examples of The Commons. (Go to http://www.onthecommons.org/ for more detailed information on the importance of The Commons.)

The world of neoclassical economics suffered a major wake-up call during the 2008 credit crunch. The system's been shaken and it's under scrutiny like never before, yet most of our businesses, governments and academic institutions continue espousing free markets as the solution to everything. They insist that the mythical invisible hand exists.  The aim of this blog is to rather provide a visible helping hand to policymakers, students, academics and businessmen alike with information on new ways of viewing and managing the economy - for the greater good.

*A descriptive page is assigned to each topic (see links on left), daily posts however are submitted on the home page.