Crash, Boom, Pop! Kickstarter Campaign Receives Major Boost

Econintersect: With three days to go the campaign to fund the comic book version of Steve Keen’s “Debunking Economics”  has received a major boost.  A backer has pledged to add $2,000 for every 35 pledges received of $1 or more over the final three days of the Kickstarter campaign.  It has been 11 hours since Econintersect posted the last news article on this project and the pledges have increased by more than $1,100 from 27 individuals.  The total now stands at $20,216.  Econintersect urges readers to make pledges, even if small.  To get the pledges available from the backer needed to reach $35,000 some 200-300 additional pledges will be needed.  Go to Kickstarter.

This is not an effort to create a better communication of what is presented in most standard economics text books. It is economics strictly based on observation rather than theory; this is a complete departure from the textbook tradition of the past 70 years which is structured out of theory, assumptions and simplified models. From the previous article:

A “novel” project is underway at the Institute for Dynamic Economic Analysis. The idea is to create a multi-volume cartoon illustrated economics story that explains with humor and visual impact just what the ideas are that form the foundation of economics. This is not “your grandfather’s economics” but the emerging and often contentious field commonly called “heterodox economics” which is based less on the idea that economic systems can be described starting with conceptual models; and more that economics is best understood from the base of empirical observation of economic systems subjected to rigorous, logical analysis.

While much of mainstream economics (neoclassical economics) could be considered as much armchair philosophy as science, heterodoxy often (but not always) eschews philosophy and focuses on measurement and observation.

The new project has the objective of making the introduction to economics as easy as reading a comic book but as meaningful as the focus on observation and measurement of systems can make it. The focus is to avoid presenting “what to think” and to try to present “how to think”.

The project is being supported by crowdfunding with supporters receiving mementos associated with the project based on the level of support.

The basis of the books will follow the structure of Steve Keen’s “Debunking Economics” (Second Edition 2011) which is a scholarly presentation of the logical inconsistencies in most of what is considered to be economics over the past several decades. The books will have color illustrations accompanying a text representing a condensation of what is in the traditional textbook. A draft of the introduction can be viewed below (which has black-and-white-illustrations):

Make your pledge:

Kickstarter (has not reached goal) or StartJoin (exceeded goal).

Disclosure: Econintersect Managing Editor has made a substantial (for him) pledge.

John Lounsbury