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natjdyer.bsky.social
Nat Dyer
@natjdyer.bsky.social
3.6K followers 730 following 910 posts
My book RICARDO’S DREAM - a 'simply brilliant' critique of mainstream economics - came out in Nov '24. Fellow of Schumacher Institute. Formerly with Global Witness & PEP. www.natdyer.com
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natjdyer.bsky.social
I've been thinking about this today
A sketch of the tree of life by Charles Darwin from his notebook circa 1837. The words 'I think' are above and A, B, C, D at different elements of the tree. They are all unified in the trunk of the tree where a 1 is circled - representing the universal common ancestor of all life (a radical idea then and still not fully assimilated into our worldview).
November 18, 2025 at 11:24 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
This is an overview of the talk, which'll be followed by a Q&A.

Zoom link: zoom.us/j/9139109120...

All welcome
Text about a talk by Nat Dyer called 'Mary Midgley amongst the Economists'. Body text reads: Mary Midgley had an unfashionable - for her time - view of the role of philosophy as the field whose job it was to map the relationships between different areas of knowledge. In her own life - and her writing on evolutionary theories - she grappled with what she saw as fantastical and overly-simple economic theories such as Marxism and Thatcherism. However, Midgley never engaged in an extended critique of economists or their methods. Despite this, author Nat Dyer argues that her work contains numerous insights and approaches which can provide a fruitful and profound critique of recent economic orthodoxy. Drawing on his 2024 book, Ricardo's Dream, Nat maps out the various ways in which Midgley's work - especially her writing on reductionism and scientism - illuminates economics. For example: 1) her insistence on the role of imaginative world pictures in the construction of apparently objective, quantified models and theories such as the so-called 'rational' homo economicus; 2) her insights into the trouble we can fall in when 'experts' toggle between the technical and common meanings of words, especially emotive terms such as 'rational' and 'efficient'; 3) the failure of mainstream economics, which views the natural world as an 'externality', to grasp the importance of a holistic, ecological approach. The talk also aims to light up some of Midgley's thinking from a new angle. It puts Midgley in conversation with the British statistician George Box and suggests an overlap in the way that Box thought of quantified models and Midgley thought of myths (ie. that 'all models/myths are wrong but some are useful'.) And, how the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion - who fell in love with his own statue - is a useful analogy for experts who fall in love with their own artificial model of the world and ignore the complexity of the real world. The end.
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Perhaps this from @haugejostein.bsky.social helps provide an answer - it's just an extension of the same narrow, technocratic, 'physics-envy' attitude that dominates econ
'Far too many economists are concerned with how a change in measured variable X affects measured variable Y rather than asking normative, important questions such as: Is capitalism preferable to socialism? What are the global consequences of China’s rise in the world economy? What are the limits of looking at climate change purely through the lens of market failures? In fact, I’ve met many economists who say that they think economics is a ‘hard science’ that should be unconcerned with these types of questions. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, two of the most important figures in classical economics, would turn in their graves if they heard this. Despite their political differences, these two scholars approached economics in a similar way. They both understood that economics is shaped by human values, social norms, and ideologies. According to Smith and Marx, to be an economist is also to be a philosopher.'
September 30, 2025 at 1:16 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
I might write something about this kind of comment (left on @unlearnecon.bsky.social recent video).

I see no value at all in 'proving' in a perfectly contextless world that countries A & B could benefit form trading X & Y.

What makes anyone think this logic then maps onto reality?
Comment that reads: 'I understand that the example of England and Portugal maybe only worked because of the slaves and the gold, that doesn't matter for the sake of the argument, as well as the moral value of that episode. You can change the names of the countries for fictional ones, and change the products for letters like product A and B. for the argument you are making in this video you have to prove mathematically that the theorem doesn't work. And if the perfect scenario in which it work is unattainable, you have to explain why it will always be unattainable and then put the example in numbers if you don't do that, then, as you said you don't understand the theorem of comparative advantage. You really don't get this or in reality you really are not interested with anything else but to prove your point even if it rests on flawed logic?'
September 30, 2025 at 12:16 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Yuval Noah Harari dropping some truth here about leaders who built their careers built on division & distrust
September 15, 2025 at 9:54 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
In the grounds, I touched a 200-plus year old tree & imagined David Ricardo & a 13 year-old John Stuart Mill on a walk discussing political economy

Couldn't resist a cheesy shot of Ricardo's best known book 'Principles of Political Economy' back at the house where he wrote it.
A copy of David Ricardo's 1817 book 'The Principles of Political Economy & Taxation' with the economist's face on the cover held up in front of a large imposing house - complete with pillars at the front - Gatcombe House in the English Cotswolds, where he wrote it.
August 4, 2025 at 12:16 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
The house is now owned by Princess Anne but it's essentially the same as the one remolded by Ricardo in the 1820s.

This is a now and then - see the same sweeping greenhouse to the left
August 4, 2025 at 12:11 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Two years ago today, I got to visit David Ricardo’s home, Gatcombe House

Still impressive with a sense of power & prestige.
August 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
QUIZ. Which fierce critic of monopoly power wrote this?
The text of a book reads "the monopoly which our manufacturers have obtained against us.. [is] like an overgrown standing army, they have become formidable to the government, and, upon many occasions, intimidate the legislature. The member of parliament who supports every proposal for strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only the reputation of understanding trade, but great popularity and influence"
July 17, 2025 at 11:31 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Spotted in St David’s last week.

Two excellent-looking ‘philosophy in the wild’ sessions by @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social

Shame I won’t be able to make it back for them
Two posters for Philosophy in the Wild on a notice board
July 15, 2025 at 11:20 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Big crowd for Carole Cadwalladr interviewing Carol Vorderman at @bylinetimes.bsky.social festival
July 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Economics has never been this fun!

@kateraworth.bsky.social brings her economics circus to @bylinetimes.bsky.social festival.

Here she’s the ringmaster in the fight between Nature & Finance 🌍💰
July 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
This is also a great piece of art & raises awareness of the royal-backed RAC & slave trade…

But it also completely leaves Brazil & South America out of the triangular trade
July 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
This faux medieval exhibition of billionaires: ‘Stinking Rich’ by Andrew Swan is really quite good

This is Bezos
July 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
I’m at the Byline Times Festival this weekend

First session on truth and extremism - at Keele Uni’s chapel - with @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social @yasminalibhaibrown.bsky.social @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @nafeez.bsky.social
July 11, 2025 at 1:36 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Also last week, on a hot day in London, I got to see behind the scenes of @macrodosepod.bsky.social podcast.

Guest episode coming from me sometime in the summer 🔥
Nat Dyer, author of Ricardo's Dream, sitting in a small recording studio at a microphone, with a script in front of him set on a table cloth coloured white, red, black, green, and dark blue. For the Macrodose podcast.
June 27, 2025 at 12:16 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
'This is a seriously readable book... It's the top 1% of readable books about economics that I've ever read.'

- Cahal Moran of @unlearnecon.bsky.social

Delighted to do a YouTube livestream with Cahal last week
June 27, 2025 at 12:06 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
On the points above, Milanović’s review has all the finesse of an elephant liberated from his famous graph and let loose in a china shop.

He may have been looking for more class in my writing. I was looking for the same in his.
A graph showing change in real income from 1988 to 2008, which was created by Milanovic, with its curve that looks like the outline of an elephant with a tail, back, head, and raised trunk.
June 25, 2025 at 2:15 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Got it @brankomilan.bsky.social
June 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
A poem about David Ricardo (and Marx)!

By Gav from @economicsinten.bsky.social

A highlight from last Friday 👏🏼
June 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
I really enjoyed talking about RICARDO’S DREAM at Bookmarks on Friday
June 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
This‬ from from @ranaforoohar.bsky.social points to today's key economic issue

It would be common sense if we hadn't forgotten John Kenneth Galbraith theory of countervailing power
June 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
natjdyer.bsky.social
I’d somehow missed that Byline Times (@bylinetimes.bsky.social) was a real, physical magazine. I was really impressed
June 4, 2025 at 8:37 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
David Ricardo, the classical economist & trade theorist, has a reputation as an abolitionist, an opponent of slavery.

But that rests on just one statement. Elsewhere, he was very relaxed about West India slavery & its products.
Text that reads: 'However, Ricardo only criticised slavery once in his entire career. At other times, he seemed intensely relaxed about it. As an MP, he said he had ‘no hostility’ to West Indian plantation owners and sympathised with slave owners’ ‘sufferings’. In his Principles of Political Economy – written during a boom in the number of enslaved people in US southern states – Ricardo quoted a passage about the ‘happy’ future state of free trade when ‘the raw cotton of Carolina, will be exchanged for the wares of Birmingham’. These are not the words of an abolitionist. Therefore, perhaps, it is not surprising that he ignored the true history of England and Portugal’s trade.'
May 27, 2025 at 9:14 AM
natjdyer.bsky.social
Very nice summary of some of the differences between Biden and Trump's approach to trade, despite both using tariffs - by Rogé Karma in @theatlantic.com
May 7, 2025 at 2:35 PM