HOW ECONOMICS BECAME THE PROBLEM

An urgent call to legal action

by: Koen Byttebier

The legal systems shaping capitalist societies worldwide contribute to a variety of fundamental societal problems, such as an ever-mounting public and private debt, environmental pollution, an increasing polarization between the rich and the poor, and an overall, globally unjust fiscal and financial order. These issues remain unaddressed by the capitalist system itself. However, the main legal building blocks of the capitalist socio-economic system are remarkably simple, the most important being money and the way it is created; the company form, and the (neo)liberal state organization aimed at making markets as free as possible in the sole interest of the entrepreneurial sector.

In How economics became the problem: An urgent call to legal action expert in economic and financial law Koen Byttebier provides a critical analysis of capitalist society and gives insights in how to deploy legal tools differently, to the benefit of our societies and communities.

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HOW ECONOMICS BECAME THE PROBLEM

About the author(s)

Koen Byttebier is professor in economic and financial law (VUB) and the promotor of the VUB Fund for Research about the values of the socioeconomic order. He has authored numerous journal articles and books. His most recent publications focus on the underlying ethics of the socio-economic order, e.g. Towards a New International Monetary Order, The Unfree Market and the Law, and The Tools of Law that Shape Capitalism.