Paul Ormerod, renowned as the thinking person's economist, tears up conventional wisdom and explains why the economy is so much more than the sum of its parts. Taking in the latest scientific, social and mathematical theories, Ormerod argues that the economy must be viewed as more like a living organism than a machine. Like society itself, it is a complex system, living at the edge of chaos. Despite what governments like to think, such systems are inherently difficult to predict and manage. Not least because tiny fluctuations can produce enormous changes - just as the beating of a butterfly's wings on one continent can, it is said, cause a tornado to start on another. Containing much original research material and illustrated with ingenious examples from a wide range of countries, Butterfly Economics will provoke widespread debate in the UK and abroad.