The state of economics is poor: it has narrowed its focus to a viewpoint whose explanatory power was heavily questioned not only during the global financial crisis after 2007, but whose policy recommendations even enabled the crisis and exacerbated its consequences. Moreover, it seems unable to contribute much to solving the major environmental problems of our time. However, outside of mainstream economics, a critical perspective – heterodox economics – has developed, which rejects the basic assumptions of mainstream economics and, in various schools – including Post-Keynesianism, complexity economics, and ecological economics – develops questions and provides alternatives that challenge mainstream economics and suggest a paradigm shift.