Standard textbook economics is a con trick practised on you and me for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Most economists know some of the reasons for this, but are too concerned with their own work and careers to confront the whole truth.

Lord Robert Skidelsky, the biographer of John Maynard Keynes, is that rare animal among economists: he can explain complex economic ideas in terms anyone with a half-decent education should be able to understand.