As the cost of living rises and wages stagnate, it seems like bleak times are upon us. We are being bombarded by the message from politicians and business leaders that the boom years are over and recession stalks the economy. We are resigning ourselves to financial hardship, while social media still peddles rampant consumerism and contributes to social unrest by ' othering' people, causing us to fight amongst ourselves as to who deserves to dip into a dwindling public purse the most. But while it may feel like boom-and-bust economic cycles are inevitable, it does not have to be this way. In his debut book, author Karim El-Ayoubi explains how we have been sold a lie. Universities teaching Neoclassical economics peddle the myth that money and banking are unimportant to the economy, a myth that has the economists they produce constructing economic policies that make no sense in the real world. Economists who have no idea how recessions happen or how to fix them. The result is a banking system that exploits the economy rather than supports it, an endless boom-and-bust cycle, unemployment, instability, and levels of inequality approaching those of feudal times. In this groundbreaking new book, El-Ayoubi proves what most people have suspected for quite some time - our economy is failing us. There is nothing stopping us from simply throwing out Neoclassical economics, learning from the economic policies that created the Asian Tiger economies and applying them to ourselves. A different economic approach saw Japan become recession-free for 30 years post-World War II, while China has been an unstoppable powerhouse for the last 40 years. In Realonomics, El-Ayoubi does more than prove what is wrong with our current economic system and how we got into this mess - he provides a roadmap for an alternative. An alternative that consigns recession, and its devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people, to the history books. An alternative that will bring a real and lasting equality to our society. For everyone who has ever wondered why their standard of living is lower than that of their parents, why hard work does not seem to bring its own rewards, and why they are struggling so hard just to stand still, Realonomics provides the answers to these questions. Our economy is rigged, and we are fighting against it. If we can change the theory it is based on, we can change our future. The coming years do not have to be bleak - we have the power to make them bright, if we can only learn from the lessons of the past.