Announcing Econ4

Dear friends,

We are proud to announce the launch of an exciting new project called Econ4: economics for people, the planet and the future. Econ4 is an online platform for dissemination of innovative thinking in economics.

Today we face not only a crisis of the economy, but also a crisis of economics. The free-market fundamentalism that dominated economic discourse for an entire generation has been discredited by financial collapse, mass unemployment, environmental decay and global economic imbalances. Innovative thinking about economics and the economy is urgently needed.

Econ4 aims to break the stranglehold of corporate media and ideological orthodoxy in the teaching of economics and public conceptions of how the economy works and should work – and to do it in a style that’s both compelling and fun.

It’s a tall order. But with social networking and the new information technologies, we think we can do it.

Econ4 has just launched its website: econ4.org. Here you’ll find the first of our new original film series as well as a host of other resources – videos, articles and links – bringing together the best the web has to offer in innovative economics thinking.

You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook, where we’ll be posting updates and expanding our network of friends.

One of our first steps will be fundraising for our original film series. The films will be a cornerstone resource in our effort to ‘reboot Economics 101’ and bring innovative economics to a wide audience.

For the long term, we’re thinking even bigger. Econ4 will create a suite of teaching materials to accompany the videos. We plan to build an Econ4 network for innovative economics teaching. And in all our work we will strive to upload ethics into the theory and practice of economics.

Our vision is ambitious. But the times in which we live, and the economic challenges we face, demand nothing less.

Jim Boyce, Jerry Epstein, Julie Schor and Doug Smith

for the Econ4 team