A decade after the financial crisis, there is a growing consensus that economics has failed and needs to go back to the drawing board. David Orrell argues that it has been trying to solve the wrong problem all along.
Economics sees itself as the science of scarcity. Instead, it should be the science of money (which plays a surprisingly small role in mainstream theory). And money is a substance that turns out to have a quantum nature of its own.
Just as physicists learn about matter by studying the exchange of particles at the subatomic level, so economics should begin by analysing the nature of money-based transactions. Quantum Economics therefore starts with the meaning of the phrase 'how much' - or, to use the Latin word, quantum.
From quantum physics to the dualistic properties of money, via the emerging areas of quantum finance and quantum cognition, this profoundly important book reveals that quantum economics is to neoclassical economics what quantum physics is to classical physics - a genuine turning point in our understanding.

David Orrell's profile page

David Orrell is a scientist and writer of books on science and economics. According to the Sunday Times 'Orrell is an engaging and witty writer, adept at explaining often complicated theories in clear language.' His latest books are The Money Formula: Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science, and How Mathematicians Took Over the Markets, written with Paul Wilmott; and Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong (Icon Books, 2017).

Rich with suggestive insights on every page and written in an accessible style, this book will both engage and infuriate its audience. For those of us who feel trapped in the professional cocoons of the like-minded, this book offers a chance to escape from the iron cages we have built.

Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

As money becomes more digital and diffuse, it also becomes more quantum. In this timely and illuminating book, David Orrell brings us to the frontier of where economics, physics and psychology intersect. You'll never look at money the same again!

Dr Parag Khanna, author of Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

Orrell has explained his ideas in a very lively style, providing the history and a basic explanation of the physics; and goes on to explore the various consequences of this dual nature, which neo-classical economics did not foresee. The book should be read, not only by economists but also by all decision-makers.'

Asghar Qadir, Professor of Physics, National University of Science and Technology, Pakistan

On the cusp of an earlier revolution, Karl Marx said all that is solid melts into air and all that is holy is profaned. Constructing a less mechanistic and even more revolutionary science of quantum economics, David Orrell proves it so. Orrell does not dabble in metaphor or metaphysics: he intellectually, persuasively and corrosively transmutates money into a quantum phenomenon. In the process, classical economics is profaned to good effect and a quantum future glimmers as a real possibility.

James Der Derian, Chair of International Security Studies, University of Sydney

Orrell gives economic theory a much-needed shove into the world of science - understandable, fascinating, thought-provoking and ground-breaking.

Hilliard MacBeth, author of When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the Canadian Real Estate Crash (2nd Edition, June 2018)

Reading David Orrell's Quantum Economics is equivalent to playing a game of 3-D chess against the concept of value itself. The book easily switches between physical, economic and metaphysical conceptions of value, revealing their hidden parallels and paradoxes. The result is at once an explanation of our current economic predicament, a diagnosis of how we got there and a credible guide to the sort of "out of the box" thinking that is likely to get us out of it. After you've forgotten about the latest wheeze about the financial crisis, you'll be returning to this book. What is perhaps most surprising about it is just how readable -- yet thoroughly researched -- it is.

Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, and author of Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game

Beautifully written, inherently ethical, and often hilarious, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the weird, and getting weirder, world of modern finance.'

Margaret Wertheim, author of Pythagoras’ Trousers and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace