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PODCAST

Debunking Economics - the podcast

Steve Keen & Phil Dobbie

Economist Steve Keen talks to Phil Dobbie about the failings of the neoclassical economics and how it reflects on society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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All Episodes

39:09

Can we get by without growth, growth, growth?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/10/19

Before her plans were ripped up, the UK’s newest Prime Minister was promising growth, growth, growth in an economy that has avoided it for a long time. And she was going to do it through that tried and tested method of trickle-down economics! Cut taxes for the rich and watch the economy grow. Sadly, we’ll never know whether it worked or not because the plans have been ditched and its back to higher taxes and less government spending. More austerity and low growth. But, Phil asks Steve, isn’t low

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41:17

Understanding the cost and value of money

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/10/12

We all know money has a value, but if you are borrowing it, it also has a cost. But aside from buying houses and a few other big items, we generally are more concerned with the value of the money we earn rather than the cost of the money we borrow. Today welook at the relationship between the cost and value of money, and ask whether the instability in interest rates is hindering our ability to plan for our future. What would happen if interest rates were fixed? And what about the rising cost of

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39:51

What's the right level of inflation?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/10/05

The world is living in fear of rising inflation. Central banks are trying to combat it by pushing up interest rates, which means people also now fear how much their mortgage is going to cost. So, are they making matters better or just adding to the problem? This week Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen if inflation is as big a problem as central banks make out, and whether hiking interest rates will fix the problem this time round. And why a 2% inflation target. It’s the aim of most central banks to get

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43:12

How much money is too much?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/09/26

Last week Kwasi Kwarteng, the new UK Chancellor, announced a cut in taxes at the same time that the government was stepping in to subsidise rising energy costs for homes and businesses. The cost of all this dwarfs the money spent on the furlough scheme. That means there’s a heap of government money being pushed into the public sector. Conventional economists, of the Friedman mould, would argue that we’re already seeing inflation driven by too much money, so what abut this next blast of government

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38:17

Shadow Banks – necessary or a force for evil?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/09/21

Shadow Banks can take the blame for the 2007-8 financial crisis, packaging up mortgages and selling them as securities to investors. It seems like there’s no lack of imagination when it comes to how these companies find new ways of making money. This week Phil asks Steve if shadow banks are all bad, or is there some good? Do they, for example, create competition for established banks? Or are they simply a mechanism for operators to work outside banking regulations. Is there a need for more

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38:22

Energy, a free market failure

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/09/14

It’s clear, when energy becomes short in supply, free market forces can’t look after all of society. Just the wealthy. That’s why governments are having to step in, propping up an industry that is raking in massive profits. But could free market forces drive a more efficient delivery of energy, by making lower cost renewable energy able to compete on a more level playing field. Whilst there’s no doubt pricing is distorted in favour of fossil fuel provides, Steve tells Phil there’s still no option

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38:19

Changing the role of central banks

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/09/07

Liz Truss, the UK’s latest Prime Minister, has vowed to review the mandate of the Bank of England (BoE). It’s unclear what outcome she wants, although Kwasi Kwarteng, who is likely to be the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, has suggested the BoE didn’t move fast enough to lift interest rates. Does that mean she wants more influence over the bank’s decision making? On this week’s podcast Phil Dobbie and Prof Steve Keen look at the approach taken by central banks this time round to reduce inflation

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36:36

Is the European economy stuffed?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/08/31

Whilst the US might be struggling a bit with inflation, its nothing compared to what’s likely to happen in Europe. This week Russia shuts down its gas pipeline to Europe, supposedly for repairs, but there’s no guarantee it will open again. Even if it does, supplies are a fraction of what they were and Europe wants to stop its reliance on Russia anyway – pushing prices sky high, with rationing the only likely solution. Meanwhile, the Euro is weakening as the dollar goes from strength to strength, and

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34:08

Should we be bricking it over BRICS?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/08/24

It seems the whole approach to global trade is being redrawn. Donald Trump wanted to do less trade with China before the pandemic, and now with the Ukraine invasion the west wants to do less – preferably nothing - with Russia. Hardly surprising then that the BRICs nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are developing their own ecosystem that could see them trade less with the west, including developing their own trading currency to remove the reliance on the US dollar. Phil Dobbie

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41:26

Is it time to revert to more state ownership?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/08/18

It’s a question being asked more and more. How many of the things that we privatised should be brought back under state control, as energy companies record massive profits, yet those on low incomes are struggling to heat their homes? In the UK privatisation was rampant in the eighties, but were mistakes made? Steve Keen has a simple test as to whether some things are best managed by the public sector or the private sector? But what about public-private partnerships? Are they potentially the worst

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33:31

Can the price mechanism fix everything?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/08/08

On the Why Curve podcast last week, Phil (and Roger Hearing) spoke to Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, who argued that the gas crisis in Europe will be largely resolved by the pricing mechanism. High gas prices from Russia are making LNG imports feasible, because Europe will pay more than Asia for supplies. It won’t completely bridge the shortfall, he says, but if Europeans make a 15 percent cut in usage, then there will be no need to negotiate with Putin. This week

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36:21

Can you calm inflation and keep jobs?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/08/03

Central banks are pushing up interest rates to slow down the rate of inflation. The principle is simple. Supplies are constrained and demand is high, so we’re being charged more for practically everything. If we can slow demand then the demand-supply divide will narrow. But can you do that without throwing the world into a recession in the process? The US Federal Reserve seems to think so. They put out a paper last week, by Chris Waller and Andrew Figura, called ‘What does the Beveridge curve tell

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29:33

Electric cars – tinkering at the edge of a climate...

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/07/27

In the UK petrol cars emit 128g of CO2 per kilometre. In the US they drive bigger cars, for longer, so the carbon impact is that much greater. But cars, buses and motorcycles account for less than 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Switching to electric could make a difference (unless of course the electricity is coal powered) but will it make a big enough difference, and are the objectives for Net Zero by 2050 really achievable? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen, and asks, are we lulling

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35:37

Is the US dollar getting too big for its boots?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/07/20

As inflation grows around the world the US dollar enjoying multi-decade highs. To an extent, that’s helping mitigate the impact of inflation in the US by dampening the rising cost of imports. Most other places, though, are seeing the opposite happen. The rising dollar devalues local currencies making imports, including energy, more expensive, adding to inflation. This week Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the impacts of exchange rates on international trade and how nations could be

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38:11

How fast can a magic money tree grow?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/07/11

When British Prime Minister Theresa May said there was no magic money tree she was wrong. There is, but you still have to look after it. What happens if you take the money off the tree too quickly, and give it to the wrong people? Is that what’s happened over the last two years? This week Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen if there’s an optimum level of expansion to the money supply (through government spending) and how do we claw back from it if we have overspent? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

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34:45

How long before central banks realise they are making...

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/07/04

Inflation is rising everywhere as supply chains hit prices in the shops and at the fuel bowsers. Central banks are responding to this the only way they know how – by pushing up interest rates. Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen what’s their rationale, when higher interest rates won’t fix the supply issues? Steve suggests there will be a rapid reversal in policy when the central banks realise the real damage they are doing to the economy. ‘There will be no soft landing’, he says. ‘There never is’. But what

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35:24

Is globalisation a good thing, or a bad thing?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/06/28

When COVID has gone and the war is over, will we return to the patterns of international trade we were enjoying just a few years ago? Steve Keen says not, which puts him in the camp of anti-globalists that FT columnist Martin Wolf wrote about recently, in an article ‘The big mistakes of the anti-globalisers’. This week Phil puts some of Martin’s arguments to Steve, including the evidence that international trade has significantly boosted GDP globally and helped reduce extreme poverty. Won’t a more

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31:05

Are there secret men running the world?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/06/20

Conspiracy theorists are out there claiming that unelected representatives are holding power, using technology to control our behaviour. China has tried a bit of this social engineering, but there are those who believe its far broader than that. They also reckon the drive for us to not use cash is part of the agenda, so ‘they’ can track our behaviour. That’s why central banks (who are unelected representatives who control our behaviour) want to move to a digital currency and are against

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34:15

Coming off the QE cool aid

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/06/13

Central banks the world over are busy lifting interest ratesand, at the same time, engaging in quantitative tightening. In other words, all those bonds they bought up, will progressively be sold back to the commercial banks they were bought from. As those central bank balance sheets start to fall, what impact does it have on the economy? Does it mean we’ll see a shrinking of the money supply. That’s the commonly held belief, but, in reality the shift will have little impact, except for making banks

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26:30

The Tragedy of Misunderstanding the Commons

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2022/06/07

The Tragedy of the Commons is a concept developed by William Forster Lloyd one hundred and fifty years ago. The argument is that if you allowed everybody to graze their cattle on common ground, with nobody in charge, the land would be overgrazed and the individual pursuits of many will result in destruction for all. So, do you put someone in charge, who imposes regulations on everyone. Or do you go the way of the free marketeers, who would argue that someone owns the land and rent sit out, with a

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481 results

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