OGM’s Razor

OGM’s Razor Associative economics and the work of Tim Congdon

Christopher Houghton Budd

Publication: 2021

Price: £7.50

Since the 1980s the so-called neo-liberal paradigm has been in the ascendant, ushered onto the world stage by its two great political champions, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. For
better or worse, its precepts now govern the world, so much so that if there is now anything ‘wrong’ with economic life today (as if!) this must be linked to developments since. One well known proponent of such an approach is Tim Congdon. What neither he nor I expected was to assess today’s market preferring criteria in the light of associative economics. That, however, is the endeavour documented here. For it has to be admitted that if associative economics is to contribute to a more human form of economics, more human than the mere dictates of markets, it has to engage with, and where possible nuance or at least challenge – rather than seek to throw over – today’s orthodoxy. Examining the work of Professor Congdon is a way to do so.