Everyman

The Story of Economics in Three Acts

By: Antara Haldar

Brought to you by Penguin.

For 250 years, a ghostly hand—bloodied and invisible—has scripted our lives. Telling the story of economics like never before, Everyman makes legible the ethereal ink in which it’s etched.

A character-driven psychological drama, it presents economics’ leading man, Neo, the textbook rational actor – with his apostles, Finn, the model ‘finance bro,’ Davos, globalization’s ambassador, Wash, envoy to distant lands, and Tek, the quintessence of the tech industry – tracing their rise through the most significant moments of global economic history: the birth of capitalism to the Great Depression, the Financial Crisis to the ascent of populism. But with the by-the-book Gini and her sister, Palma, protesting the system, Tek contemplating a coup, Ordinary Joe losing patience, and a runaway monster, are they on the edge of a precipitous fall?

Kaleidoscopic like global capitalism, Everyman blends fact and fiction, future and history, tragedy and comedy. It combines novelistic flair and cutting-edge research to offer a bold new vision, built on emotion and social cooperation. If we replace a strawman—economics’ apocryphal protagonist—with flesh-and-blood, could we avert tragedy and alter the plot of capitalism? And, as Economic Man and Everyman battle for its soul, who, ultimately, is economics for?

© Antara Haldar 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026