"The world’s scariest economist” on coronavirus, innovation, and purpose

The Times of London called Mariana Mazzucato “the world’s scariest economist.” Quartz describes her as “on a mission to save capitalism from itself.” Wired says she has “a plan to fix capitalism,” and warns that “it’s time we all listened.

”Mazuccato is an economist at University College London and Founder and Director of UCL's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She’s the author of The Entrepreneurial State and The Value of Everything — two books that, together, critique some of the most fundamental economic assumptions of our time, and try and chart a different path forward.

This is a moment that demands critique. The workers who are being called “essential” now were treated as disposable before — paid low wages, offered little respect. The difference between states with innovative, capable public sectors and states where government agencies have been dismissed and defunded is on terrible display.

The debates Mazzucato has been trying to open for years are now unavoidable. So let’s have them.

Book recommendations: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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