After studying economics, Vernon Routley spent most of his working life within the bureaucracy. Although initially appointed because of his economic qualifications, he spent most of his early career engaged in the administrative minutiae which characterises all large organisations. Ultimately rising through the ranks to the senior echelons of the Australian Commonwealth Public Service, he experienced at first hand the ongoing conflict between sound economic principles and short-term political expediency which bedevils all democratic societies. On reaching retirement age he was thankfully able to abandon this intellectually frustrating situation and to devote himself to outdoor interests mostly related to the environment and its conservation. His interest in economic affairs was revived by the Global Financial Crisis and in particular by the failure of conventional economic policies to reduce unemployment and underemployment. This has led him to question the basic assumptions underlying modern-day economic theory.