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Structured as a series of short essays, 27 of them, this book presents counterarguments against the prevailing neoclassical orthodoxy in economics. IMO anyone considering taking a economics major should read this book before signing up for the course. The coverage is quite wide-ranging as is shown by the essay titles:

* The Quarrelsome Boundaries of Economics
* Modern Economics: The Problem and a Solution
* The Pitfalls of Mainstream Economic Reasoning (and Teaching)
* Neoclassical Economic Theory: A Special and Not a General Case
* Where do Economies Come From? The Missing Story
* Can Economics Start from the Individual Alone?
* Are You Rational?
* Five Pieces of Advice for Students Studying Economics
* How Mainstream Economists Model Choice, versus How We Behave, and Why it Matters
* Managerial Economics: Economics of Management or Economics for Managers?
* Why Do We Have Separate Courses in 'Micro' and 'Macro' Economics?
* The 'Natural' Rate of Unemployment
* How to Look at Economics Critically: Some Suggestions
* Teaching Economics as if Ethics Mattered
* Economics as Ideology and the Need for Pluralism
* The 'Efficiency' Illusion
* "There Are None So Blind ...
* Can Mathematics be used Successfully in Economics?
* Can We Expect Anything from Game Theory?
* Improbable, Incorrect or Impossible: the Persuasive But Flawed Mathematics of Economics
* The Significance of the Economics Research Paper
* Changing Visions of Humans' Place in the World and the Need for an Ecological Economics
* Ecological Economics: the Concept of Scale and its Relation to Allocation, Distribution and Uneconomic Growth
* What's Wrong with GDP and Growth? The Need for Alternative Indicators
* What is Wrong with the 'Official History of Capitalism'?
With Special Reference to the Debates on Globalisation and Economic Development
* Should the Study of Transnational Companies be Part of the Economics Syllabus
* Would a Latin American Economic Make Sense?

Despite the contributions of more than two dozen authors, there is a remarkable smoothness of style. Considering the subtlety of the subject matter, the book also is very easy to read. (I found it good bedtime reading.) As a whole, the essays stand as a well-argued critique of much, if not most, of neoclassical economics. The book waves the banner for a growing number of dissident economists who have had enough of neoclassical twaddle and having to teach it. Along with Steve Keen's "Debunking Economics" this book is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in economics.

Fullbrook's collection of critical papers titled "What's Wrong With Economics", with contributions from twenty-six different authors on seven core subjects, is a reasonable introduction to heterodox economics for the layman with an interest in the 'technical' aspects of economics. Practically all the essays in this book are written from a radical neoclassical perspective criticizing the mainstream, although the writers vary much in the degree of their radicalism. Some authors just call for more attention to local circumstances or the environment, others, such as Steve Keen, Geoffrey Hodgson and Bernard Guerrien seek to demolish certain fundaments of the neoclassical mainstream.

None of the papers, perhaps with the exception of Keen's, are very difficult to read, and most are short and to the point, which is very pleasant. The quality is varying, with some papers making rather weak points that could be avoided with just minor surface changes of mainstream practice or that attack precisely things that are not the issue of neoclassical economics, such as with Anne Mayhew's contribution. Generally though the essays are reasonably interesting and informative, and because of the excellent scope of this book, a balance between width and depth is achieved that allows any intelligent reader to get a primer on what is, indeed, wrong with economics. The only major flaw is that it contains no criticisms other than radical neoclassical ones.

This book is really good and thought provoking. For years I have thought that conventional economic theory is like a religion or phantasy, one that has permeated many leaders and governments and had devastating effects on people when put into practice. This book put substance to my thoughts, gave me many new sources as it is multi authored and introduced me to some valuable new perspectives.