The way forward for economic thinking is to view and use economics as a data-driven tool to ameliorate the collective economic outcomes for everyone involved in an economy. Economics as a tool has a tremendous power to improve the lives of millions; and by and large, it has helped us achieve that over the past couple of centuries. But as we are facing pressing global threats on many fronts, economics cannot continue in the way it is practiced now, constrained and distorted by constant political and ideological influences and special interests. It is time to put economics back to where it belongs: a rigorous science that respects data, results, and evidence, not a misappropriated tool to serve political and ideological agendas and the interests of the elite few.
