Daniel Stähr - »Die neuen Propheten«
»If we want to solve the great crises of our time, we must free ourselves from the dominance of economics.«
Mysterious councils of wise men, proclaiming the will of the gods and thus influencing the decisions of state leaders, might seem like a thing of antiquity. However, even today, self-proclaimed prophets are attributed superhuman abilities that allow them to glimpse the future and significantly shape both the affairs of politics and the everyday lives of people. They determine how high our rent is and who we match with in online dating. They decide what actions are taken during crises and when governments fail. We are speaking of economists, whose power is mainly rooted in the fact that it is rarely questioned.
Daniel Stähr is now changing this with his book »Die neuen Propheten. Wie Ökonomen unsere Zukunft verspielen«. In it, the economist takes a hard look at the supremacy of his own profession, provides an overview of the most influential economic theories, and shows alternatives where the dogma of inevitability prevails. This is not only instructive but also inspires hope for a better future, as someone speaks up who knows that everything could also be different.
Moderation: Hadija Haruna-Oelker
Daniel Stähr, born in 1990 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is an economist, essayist, and freelance author. He is pursuing his PhD at the FernUniversität in Hagen on the topic of »Narrative Economics«. Contributions from him regularly appear in Deutschlandfunk Kultur, in der Zeit, the taz, or the FAS. His latest work, »Die Sprache des Kapitalismus« (2024, together with Simon Sahner), was published by S. FISCHER and won the Reader's Prize of the German Economic Book Award. Daniel Stähr lives in Frankfurt am Main.
Hadija Haruna-Oelker lives and works as an author, editor, and moderator in Frankfurt am Main. In 2022, her personal nonfiction book »Die Schönheit der Differenz – Miteinander anders denken« was published, which was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. In 2024, she published »Zusammensein. Plädoyer für eine Gesellschaft der Gegenseitigkeit«. She is a recipient of various media awards, such as the ARD Radio Prize Kurt Magnus in 2015 and the Media Mirror Special Prize for transparent journalism in 2021. In addition, she is part of the journalists' association Neue Deutsche Medienmacher*innen (NDM) and the initiative Black People in Germany (ISD).
Photo (c) Stefan Gelberg
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
