6: Concluding Thoughts

The objective behind this book was to review the dominant neo-classical economic paradigm and provide insights into a new economic model by critically assessing the new left economics, revisiting and framing this as a basis for an economy with a strong social focus. We referred to economic crises and the failure of standard models to explain, predict and alleviate the ramifications of such downturns, with a particular focus on rising inequality and the latest research within this field. There are also clear links to rising populism and even to some extent climate change since both phenomena can be considered as direct by-products of the dominant economic paradigm.