Independent, inflation-targeting central banks were supposed to deliver stable prices, financial stability and lasting prosperity. Instead, they have presided over financial crises, stagnant growth, rising inequality and the return of inflation. Yet policy makers and politicians have proved remarkably reluctant to challenge the orthodoxy. Why has this model proved so resilient-and what should replace it?

In The Gods That Failed, economist Josh Ryan-Collins argues that today's macroeconomic policy framework rests on five powerful myths that have shaped economic thinking since the 1980s. From the “natural” rate of interest and the management of inflation expectations to efficient financial markets and the taboos surrounding fiscal dominance and credit policy, these ideas continue to constrain policymakers even as the evidence against them becomes overwhelming.

Blending colourful economic history, cutting-edge research and vivid real-world examples, Ryan-Collins opens-up the often opaque and technocratic world of monetary and financial policy for a wide readership and illustrates its fundamental flaws. At a time of repeated economic and financial shocks, ecological breakdown and geopolitical instability, The Gods That Failed argues that rebuilding our economies will require a wholesale rethinking of how central banks, governments and financial institutions work together to manage money, credit and the macroeconomy.