When it comes to matters of the economy, have you had enough of ‘experts’ and their foolish, untrue predictions? If so, then you could read about the financial ideas of the lunatics within. At least they’re funny. Economics is often dismissed as the ‘Dismal Science’, with its prognostications frequently amounting to little more than pseudoscientific guesswork. However, you don’t need to know your Karl Marx from your Adam Smith to be able to tell that the following proposals are as dodgy as a nine-bob note. From the idea of trading in rotting ‘vegetable-money’ to discourage the hoarding of capital and the optimistic notion that it might be possible to destroy the North Korean economy with chocolate biscuits, to the US presidential candidate who accepted tax advice from outer space, this book tells the story of some of the loopiest economic ideas of all time.

How does the ghost of the founder of Panasonic assess the current state of the Tokyo Stock Exchange? Can you keep your credit rating following reincarnation into another body? What are the hidden relations between gravity and share prices? Do vampires control the stock market? How can eating haunted paintings improve the Russian economy? Is Jesus Christ a Pakistani economist working undercover in the NHS? Can gold have sex and babies? And a little more ‘grounded’ –was Hugo Chávez actually serious and why did Brexit happen? Buy this book or pay the high price of not finding out! Forget Freakonomics– prepare to meet the freaks.

• Economics a hotter subject even than usual at the moment with instability widespread
• Previous books on similar subjects, e.g. Freakanomics, have done well
• Author has written a column for Fortean Times and is full of interesting stories