Membermalcolmhenry

When I joined LT I went around my bookshelves and added some of the books (mostly favourites) to my LT library but I've been reader all of my life and have probably read thousands of books.

I usually have a novel of some sort on the go and often something technical as well. In the last couple of years I've read a lot about economics and money, but over the years I've delved into subjects as diverse as sail performance, quantum physics, democracy, and energy.

I live and work on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland, a few miles from the village where I grew up.
In 1979-80 I spent eight months as a trainee sub-editor at a publishing company, which was my first and last proper job.
I then spent a year and a bit at university attending lectures in English and Russian literature, philosophy, history, and the like before escaping to learn how to build boats.

In 1984 I started my first business designing, building and repairing wooden boats. Since then I've taken a lead role in a wide range of business activities including outdoor education, software development, tourism, renewable energy, R&D, construction, and more. Every working day has been spent immersed in the commercial realities of small businesses, experiencing at close quarters how our economy works.

In 2001 I set up QEI Projects Ltd as a vehicle for consultancy work and a variety of R&D projects that seek to find better ways of doing things, providing my clients with a useful mix of analytical skills and pragmatism that have been developed over 30 years of working out how to get things done within budget and on time.
All of this experience has been applied to developing a particular view of the economy, its dysfunction, and how it could be reformed to work more effectively.

I know how much of a turn-off economics can be for a lot of people but I've come to realise how important the subject is for the well-being of our communities, locally, nationally, and internationally. It's too important to leave to the so-called experts who do not appear to have a clue how to fix the problems that are causing such misery to people across the globe.