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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

40:28

Is manufacturing fetishism a problem?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/06/25

There was an article in The Economist last week, shared widely in press around the globe, about the apparent fixation with manufacturing. Aussie economist Saul Eslake calls it Manufacturing Fetishism, with government support focused more on that sector than anything else. President Trump wants to bring home everything from steelmaking to drug production and is putting up tariff barriers to do so. Britain is considering subsidising manufacturers’ energy bills; Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister,

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43:07

Selling the farm

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/06/18

There’s an irony that the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has imposed an inheritance tax on farmers, whilst a trade agreement with the US could see Britain selling-the-farm on a farm grander scale.Phil argues that some sort of tax on the inheritance of farms makes sense kif its only used as a tax dodge. Jeremy Clarkson bought his farm (reportedly for £6 million) and had a farm manager run it for 10 years before he started making his TV series. If we he died before the new tax rules the £6 million would

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42:29

AI and the death of work

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/06/11

Bill Gates has predicted that within 10 years we’ll be working a two-day week, thanks to advances in AI.He says it’ll mean a vast rethinking of the workplace. It’s not too dissimilar to Keynes's prediction in the 1930s that wed al be working 15-hour weeks, with more time to enjoy the good things in life.Of course, Keynes was wrong. We are working longer hours with loads more stress. Tools to aid productivity have freed up time for us to take new jobs and add to the economic output. Steve says a lot

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40:22

Insurance, the canary for climate change

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/06/04

There are challenges that the insurance industry faces, even though it can look like a licence to print money, Since the Big Bang of the nineties, when deregulation allowed the industry to flourish, insurance now accounts for 2.5% of UK GDP. Not bad money for an industry that is a cost to society, rather than a benefit. Until now the business model has been simple; charge a premium based on the risk profile of the customer, avoid high risk customers altogether and invest the payments you receive

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42:19

Are we ready for the next pandemic?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/05/28

The pandemic killed 200 thousand people in the UK. Are we ready for the next time? Experts reckon will be even less prepared should we see another pandemic in the near future.Prof Tom Koch from the University of British Columbia reckons we don’t have long to wait - the next one could strike in the next five to eight years.If you were a virus with an understanding of how economics is taught, this is exactly how you would have planned it. Yet governments to spend a fortune on the first blow, knowing

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42:19

Can governments spend their way out of a slowdown?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/05/22

Economists seem conditioned to think that we need to suffer before an economy can get back on track. They argue an economy can’t grow if there is a large amount of accrued government debt. That the economy needs confidence to grow, and the confidence won’t exist the government owes a lot of money. Phil suggests to Steve that confidence and the private sector’s a willingness to invest are two staple requirements for economic growth. A government deficit will also help, but does it really help in

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38:16

Climate Change. The need for a reset.

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/05/14

It’s clear to just about everyone that we won’t reach the climate targets set out in the Paris agreement. It was a pipe dream even before President Trump v2.0 came along. The various COP summits, which rely on agreement from everyone, are nothing more than gabfests. They are a COP-out. This was recognised in a paper this month from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, entitled ‘The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change’.There are some sound observations, says Steve,

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42:38

Jobs for all. Is it a false utopia?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/05/07

A key policy area of Modern Monetary Theory is the idea of a job guarantee.There might be a limit to available resources, but the labour force should always be employed. It helps the economy and it’s good for the individuals and for society. But Phil wonders how practical it is.If there’s an economic downturn can the government miraculously conjure up worthwhile jobs? Steve says it was less of an issue in the 50s and 60s when a higher proportion of the population worked for the government. Perhaps a

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47:30

Why we are getting poorer (with Cahal Moran)

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/04/30

Why is it, that whilst there are an increasing number of billionaires on the planet, the rest of us are no better than we were decades ago? Young people can’t get on the housing ladder, there’s an increasing waiting list for health services, schools are short of money and tertiary education, once free, leaves students with a lifetime of debt. Except for the very rich, of course. Cahal Moran says more economics students are questioning what they are being taught in lectures and examines what’s

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39:07

Why nation states fail?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/04/22

The standard excuse for why states fail is the rampant printing of money.That certainly doesn’t help, but it’s often the symptom not the cause. In most cases states fail simply because the government isn’t in control. Take, for example, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan.Burt Phil asks Steve whether recent warnings on bond markets show that government debt can place the economy in a precarious position. Take the Liz Truss disaster budget. Or Trump’s swift reversal on tariffs in response

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42:34

Trump is half way to Keynes’s answer to deficits

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/04/16

In 1944, at Bretton Woods, 44 countries agreed to make the US dollar the world's reserve currency. This decision inflated the dollar's value, making American exports expensive and imports cheaper. Donald Trump is now addressing this imbalance with tariffs on countries with high trade surpluses. Steve suggests that adopting Keynes's proposal for a neutral Bancor currency might have been better, while Phil wonders if it's time to reintroduce it, perhaps calling it “Trump” to appeal to the President’s

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37:48

Trump. Has he lost his mind?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/04/09

It’s clear that President Trump lied to the American people about his reciprocal tariffs. Many of the countries he is imposing tariffs do not impose anywhere near those numbers on imports from America. As Phil points out, some countries, like Cambodia, that sell cheap goods to the US don’t buy from the US because they can’t afford to on their low wages. You can only have trade equalisation if you have similar income levels.Steve takes us through the formula that was sued to calculate these

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44:05

Should we tax the rich?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/04/02

It’s often the easy excuse on how to fix the problems of wealth inequality - just tax the rich more. Former trader turned YouTuber economist Gary Stevenson argues regularly that it’ll fix a lot of the problem. He’s right that the wealthy own assets and the richer they become the more the price of those assets increases. Take land as an example. The government is on a push to build more houses to benefit lower income earners. But who owns the land those houses will be built on? The rich? So, who wins

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39:11

Will Trump drive us to a better tax system?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/03/26

It’s likely that many countries around the world will face import tariffs in retaliation for imposing a value-added-tax on American goods sold in their own country- alongside other goods, taxed equally, that are not from America. As Steve outs it this week, “What tortured brain cells have communicated to other tortured brain cells to make a proposition that VAT on imports from America is discriminatory”.Still, it looks like it might happen. And how do you resolve that situation. Do you get rid of a

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35:08

There is no energy transition happening

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/03/23

Are we kidding ourselves when we talk about an energy transition? Sure, we are using more renewables than ever before, but the planet is also using more fossil fuels than ever before. Phil asks Steve whether part of the problem is that we pout faith in incumbent energy companies managing that transition. The way BP and others have switched focus back on fossil fuel exploration shows how ill-conceived that expectation was. But, irrespective of who drives the transition, is it too much to expect

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36:01

Is there a ceiling to economic supremacy?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/03/12

Donald Trump is doing everything he can think off to improve the US economy. Tariffs, cutting government spending, bringing manufacturing back home, accessing more resources and lowering the cost of energy. Will it work? And, if it does, Phil wonders whether there’s a ceiling to how far the US economy can grow. Or does it grow at the expense of other countries/ In other words, Phil wants Steve Keen to explain what happens as the US, the world’s leading economy, tries to heighten its supremacy

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41:45

Bringing manufacturing home, the Japanese Way

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/03/05

In a recent podcast Phil suggested that bringing manufacturing home to America won’t necessarily create jobs, because most factories will be automated.They just need one man and a dog, he said. The man to turn the machine on, and the dog to make sure he doesn’t touch anything else.That touched a nerve with Brian Hanley has spent his life refining manufacturing processes. The key ingredient suggests, is people. Elon Musk was the latest to try the lights out approach and realised it didn’t

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40:17

Are we giving up on climate change?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/02/26

Donald Trump, as the world’s highest profile climate change denier, has famously said, repeatedly, that he wants to drill baby drill, to make US energy even cheaper. It’s already half the price of Europe, and all the productivity benefits that provides. Phil and Steve talk about whether this the final nail in the coffin in a world which is paying lip service to the changes required. Is nuclear our only way to fast track a workable solution? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

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41:06

The trade war has begun

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/02/19

Reciprocal tariffs could be coming to every OECD country if we believe everything Donald Trump says. He sees VAT as a tariff imposed on US imports, which means he wants to impose the same amount on those countries for goods they export to America. That would apply to every OECD country and, supposedly, the President has said there will be no exceptions. Does this mean a global trade war is just about to happen? Steve has been a supporter of protectionism as a way to aid growth, and understands the

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41:28

Do we need a reserve currency?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2025/02/12

The new US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently re-iterated the US desire to remain as the world’s reserve currency, because they like a strong dollar that’s in demand worldwide. Burt he also says he doesn’t want other currencies weak, because that gives thema trade advantage.That sounds like a “cake and eat it” philosophy. This week Phil asks Steve whether the US would be better off if it wasn’t the reserve currency,and whether,in these days of electric transfers, do we actually need a reserve

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481 results

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