Editing Frederick Soddy (section)

== Economics ==
{{Ecological economics|People}}
In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",<ref name="zencey">{{cite news|last1=Zencey|first1=Eric|title=Mr. Soddy's Ecological Economy| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion|access-date=22 December 2017|work=The New York Times|date=12 April 2009|format=Opinion}}</ref>  offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics – the [[laws of thermodynamics]], in particular – and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".<ref name="zencey"/> While most of his proposals – "to abandon the [[gold standard]], let international [[exchange rate]]s float, use federal [[deficit spending|surpluses and deficits]] as [[Macroeconomic policy instruments|macroeconomic policy tools]] that could counter [[Business cycle|cyclical trends]], and establish bureaus of [[economic statistics]] (including a [[consumer price index]]) in order to facilitate this effort" – are now conventional practice, his critique of [[fractional-reserve banking]] still "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom" although a recent paper by the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] reinvigorated his proposals.<ref name="zencey"/><ref>{{citation|last1=Beneš|first1=Jaromír|last2=Kumhof|first2= Michael|title=The Chicago Plan Revisited|ssrn=2169748 |ssrn-access=free |date=August 2012}}</ref> Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks of [[fossil fuels]]. Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism of [[economic growth]] is echoed by his intellectual heirs in the now emergent field of [[ecological economics]].<ref name="zencey"/>

''[[The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics]]'', an influential reference text in economics, recognized Soddy as a "reformer" for his works on monetary reforms.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5|title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics|date=2018|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-95188-8|editor-last=Macmillan Publishers Ltd|location=London|language=en|doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5}}</ref>