John Mills provides a critical survey of the way economics has
developed. He argues that the main goal of economics ought to be to show
how to achieve a combination of economic growth, full employment, low
inflation, avoidance of extreme poverty and sustainability. That it has
failed to do so is neither inevitable nor accidental. It has failed
because of a combination of intellectual error and the effects of social
and political pressure, which Mills claims could and should have been
avoided.