You (Do Not) Have A Choice!
Sometimes we would like to make our own choices.
Sometimes we have no choice, as we are forced to make a choice.
How jarring would it be to be forced to participate in a game without even knowing the basic rules? Imagine if a lot was at stake, and you weren’t even aware of the goal of the game whose outcome. You are already playing that game, one which might have the highest stakes of them all!
Many people would agree that Economics affects our everyday life considerably. However, most people severely underrate the extent of its relevance, believing that its scope is limited to money-related issues. The breadth to which economics influences our life is much wider than that; from which clothes you wear to what food you eat, from how and where you spend your time to who you spend it with.
The Choice You’re Facing
This misjudgement leads most people to neither invest enough in their economic education, nor pay enough attention to economic discussion; which is a pity as it translates into most people going through “the game of life” without barely knowing the basic rules, latter all mastering advanced strategies. Life is about choices, which sometimes (or perhaps most of the time) you will make whether you know it or not.
A sound grasp of the nature of economic dynamics is essential to understand global affairs and fairly evaluate the actions taken by decision-makers. The Economics way of thinking will help you to appreciate how societies really work and allow you to make better choices yourself. You can choose to either keep going on hoping to get lucky, or you could seize the opportunity to embark on a journey of discovery and actually try to learn how to play.
Not a simple task
This misconception is not surprising, as the world is complex! The world is brimming with complex issues, intricately interwoven to each other in an even more complex way; akin to a jigsaw puzzle where each piece is a complex jigsaw puzzle itself. Admittedly it is objectively hard to correctly asses which issues are linked to each other, how they are connected together, the nature of their relationships, and the strength of their interdependencies.
So is it just impossible to figure it all out? Is it too hard of a chore?
What Forbidden Economics Can Do For You
If you are an inquisitive person who wants to better understand how the world really works, you have just found the right place. Whether you are passionate about learning, an explorer on a journey to unravel all the world’s mysteries, or just curious enough to discover what is going on around you; welcome to Forbidden Economics where we are embarking on mission to push the boundaries of Economic knowledge and evolve its thinking framework.
Our goal is to create the leading public platform for presenting, sharing, and discussing economic, political, philosophical and other social issues. Forbidden Economics is committed to deliver premium quality, fact-based analysis, and thought provoking commentary; which foster holistic understanding, and inspire innovation within these fields. We shall strive to approach our subject matters with a holistic perspective; and present our findings in a format that is engaging, yet understandable, for both the qualified practitioner and the inquisitive layperson.
The Uphill Struggle We Need to Overcome
Hurdles, Challenges, and Tests:
Often Economic discussion is either shrouded in unnecessary mystifying jargon, or victim to neutering over-simplification which ultimately bears no fruit. Bold sensationalist statements routinely receive more attention than pragmatic commentary, frugal interpretation preferred to rational in-depth analysis. It all compounds to make the economic debate hard to follow, information arduous to navigate, and knowledge seemingly unattainable.
Arguments which initially appear to be perfectly valid on their own, completely contradict each other; alternate reasonable trains of thought can lead to completely different conclusions; and seemingly plausible theories crumble once confronted by an opposing view. Most academics would point out that such are the consequences of theses not being subjected to a sharp enough critical thinking process at inception; which may be true, but only partially.
Within this context the average person cannot be blamed for not understanding what is really going on in with the economy, or lacking appreciation for the extent of its relevance. Getting disheartened would be a very normal reaction to this conundrum, giving up on trying to discover the truth and “leaving it up to the experts” can be very tempting. Adhering to dogmatic fringe beliefs to seek refuge in the simplistic answers they might offer can also be very alluring. Falling into one of these pitfalls results into most people going through “the game of life” without even grasping the basic rules.
The Toughest Hurdle
However at Forbidden Economics, we explore the possibility that the root cause of these problems lies even deeper. We investigate the thesis that both these consequences and the inadequate critical discernation stem from a framework of mind that fails to acknowledge the complex multi-faceted nature of the world we live in. We theorise this might be the result of an approach which shies away from embracing the chaotic nature of the world and prefers a neater depiction where everything is nicely explained through a manageable mathematical model.
This results in methodologies which do not make the concerted effort to intentionally investigate issues from different points of view, thus failing to examine all the pertinent perspectives. In order to find the truth we need to constantly be prepared to discover that we might be wrong, in order to push our boundaries we have to be willing to risk breaking our preconceived notions.
Our Approach and Methodology
The more different angles you look at an object from, the more truthful and comprehensive a picture of it you will get. We believe that in order to truly understand an issue we need to investigate and analyse it from as many pertinent points of view as possible. We do not just stick to the mainstream economics point of view, nor do we demonise it and adhere exclusively to one particular school of thought. We recognise the merits of mainstream economics and the theories it incorporates, but we also acknowledge their shortfalls.
We approach the issue strategically, first by deconstructing it into its components both from a micro perspective and from a macro-level one. We adopt lateral thinking techniques to investigate both each single component and how they tie with each other from multiple perspectives, including different schools of economic thought and other fields of study.
The Philosophy Guiding Us
At Forbidden Economics we are aware that there are more than 30 schools of economic thought, and we maintain that most of them can add value to our overall understanding of the workings of economics. We also recognise that various other fields of study can contribute positively and offer valuable insight into specific economic issues. Hence we advocate that the discipline of Economics should not insulate itself from other disciplines (or just get too cosy with or an outright subsidiary branch of one), but instead embrace intellectual cross pollination and make a concerted effort to rope in as many relevant perspectives as possible thus enriching its own.
Our Mission and Its Purpose
The Goal of Our Journey
The objective of our journey is to further the knowledge and improve our understanding of economics, within its own academic field, among important decision makers, amidst the general public, and our own. We want to explore the relationship between economics, politics, social progress, environmental sustainability, and civil rights; and ultimately illustrate how it affects everyone’s daily life.
Forbidden Economics’ mission is to advance the frontier of Economic knowledge and thinking; develop and promote a framework of thinking that improves our ability to understand economic, political, and other social issues, while broadening our understanding of these disciplines themselves; and finally apply these tools in practice to uplift human condition.
Our goal is to create the leading public platform for presenting, sharing, and discussing economic, political, philosophical and other social issues, theories, and ideas.
The Road Towards Our Objective
Our ambition is to push the boundaries of economic knowledge by providing in-depth analysis which enables thorough understanding of economic, political, philosophical and other social issues. We shall strive to present thought provoking commentary that challenges convention, inspires new ideas, and drives innovation within these fields.
We are determined to raise awareness about the relevance of economics and champion economic education. We are embarking on an adventure of discovery and would like to encourage people to join us. Our aim is to build a wealth of knowledge and share it with as wide an audience as possible.
We also aspire to develop and promote a framework of thinking that improves our ability to investigate, understand, and tackle economic, political, philosophical and other social issues. We are determined to design a framework of thinking that broadens our understanding of, and the nature of these disciplines itself; hence laying the foundation for groundbreaking discoveries.
Finally we want to convert the knowledge acquired into tangible solutions to pending problems and empower our readers to take advantage of the potential it holds to improve their lives and society at large. Forbidden Economics will seek to put the new thinking framework at work to generate ideas and formulate actionable proposals for the benefit of our readers, clients, their communities and humankind in general.
Welcome to Forbidden Economics we have launched with our first article
Taking the First Step Forward: It starts here!
In order to shed light on obscure issues that have a huge impact on our everyday lives, we will not shy away from questioning conventional wisdom. In a sea of noise overtaken by vociferous but uninformed pretenders we take on the mantle of being a beacon of reason. To full fill our commitment to clear the waters on controversial topics; we are ready to shoulder the burden of acknowledging that the world is complex, and recognise that we will not always be able to give a clear-cut answer. In pursuit of our desire to quench our thirst for knowledge, we sail out on a journey to unravel the mysteries of a complex world.
If you are interested in joining us on our quest or just curious too see where it leads sign up to our newsletter (it’s free), so you can keep up to date and not lose touch. If you’re still on the edge, you might want to learn more about us; or dive in by checking out our articles.
