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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

42:05

Economics and thermodynamics

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/07/26

Steve Keen has often said, the problem with economics in, it ignores thermodynamics. That’s not always been the case. Georgescu-Roegen, a Romanian economist, wrote The Entropy Law and the Economic Process in 1971, which embraced the orle of energy and waste in economics. But we’ve taken backward steps since then. This week Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen to explain what thermodynamics is and why it is critical to the forward direction for economics. Without it, can we really save the planet? Hosted on

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38:39

Free markets through subsidy

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/07/16

Even the most ardent free marketeer accepts that there is some degree of subsidy needed to support low income earners or necessary industries that are not commercially viable. This has particularly been the case through the pandemic. But what’s the best way of applying these subsidies? If you pay directly to companies will you be inhibiting efficiencies and competition. If you pay directly to consumers how do you know they will spend the as you intended? Should governments be offering payments to

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34:06

The economics of scarcity

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/07/08

From day one economics students are taught that their discipline is all about the optimal allocation of resources. The concept of scarcity is at the very heart of how we are supposed to think. And yet, as Prof Steve Ken explains this week, that scarcity doesn’t really exist. There’s plenty of people available to do jobs, there’s masses of untapped energy potential from the sun. This challenges the idea of opportunity cost – why do A or B when you can do A and B? Ironically, the one recource which is

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43:29

Dog Days and Hot Bonds

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/07/01

Canada and the west coast of the US have been hit with extreme heat the last week. The town of Lytton in British Columbia reached 49.5C, the result of a heat dome caused by static high-pressure. It’s another reminder that the world has to act on climate change. This week the ECB’s Christine Lagarde talked about how the EU needs to see around €330 billion every year by 2030 to achieve Europe's climate and energy target. Couldn’t they just issue this as bonds, in the same way they have with the

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40:13

Power (back) to the People

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/06/25

Businesses and politicians have worked tirelessly to reduce the power of workers and dissemble unions. Of course, nobody was better at it than Margaret Thatcher.But has she, and all those did their damnedest to reduce the power of unions, actually done the country a disservice? Do economies function better with strong unions? Are they the necessary counter to a system that allows companies and financiers to push wages down to the lowest possible level leading to slow economic growth? Questions Phil

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31:58

Has the UK come the raw prawn over free trade?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/06/17

Boris Johnson has enjoyed photo opportunities this week with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison with the announcement of an ‘in-principle’ free trade agreement between the two countries. It’s the first new one for the UK outside those that already existed through the EU. Great news for biscuit eaters, because Tim Tams are so much better than Penguins. But it’s seen as bad news by UK farmers who adhere to standards that don’t exist in the UK. Like hormone fed beef. So, is it a bad deal? And

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35:43

The problem with now

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/06/10

The world is fixated with the present. We want to earn money quickly and spend it quickly. CEOs don’t care about much beyond their stock options, politicians only work to getting re-elected, consumers want instant gratification. It’s no wonder then that we’re not prepared to make compromises for long term consequences, like climate change, because the economic system we use has no way of managing our investment in the future. Is there a better way of managing the economy, in a way that ensures we

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11:29

Relative Values

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/06/03

Today on the podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Steve Keen about the value of things. Supposedly, price is a substitute for value, meaning if someone is prepared to pay more for something then they must value it more. But as they discuss, that only applies if everyone has the same amount of money. A poor household will place greater value, as a proportion of their wealth, on heating their home. A rich household will see extra use of that same resources as a discretionary item that they place little value

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33:41

Inflation – transitory, then what?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/05/26

US inflation is now running at 4.2% on an annual basis, and producer prices the world over have been rising as input costs for product creep up. How much of this will be passed on to the consumer as companies struggle to absorb these costs – and what impact will these higher prices have on demand? Central banks are all toeing the same line, that rising inflation is only transitory, driven by supply chain disruption, so there’s n o need for them to respond by pushing up interest rates anytime soon

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35:00

Do central banks only help the rich?

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/05/20

This pandemic has been massive amounts spent by governments, and a chunk of that government debt is being bought by central banks. But with central banks buying up government bonds, whilst maintaining low interest rates, who is really benefiting? The answer, of course, is the wealthy. This week Steve Keen explains why the current situation is widening inequality, with the central banks at the front and centre of tis change. But government policy is helping too, in the wrong direction. So, is there

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36:08

Navigating out of the COVID crisis

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/05/10

There seems to be an assumption by many that the crisis we have experienced will quickly bounce back. Output will resume, demand will return, everyone will be back in work and the economy will rapidly expand back to where it was before COVID. Central banks appoint to supply chain disruption in the short term that might create transit inflation, but that’s the only obstacle to the road to recovery. Except, it’s not really working that way. There are forecasts for massive growth this year, but there’s

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36:22

A history of recessions, and why this is not so...

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/05/02

There’s one clear difference between this recession and almost all those that have gone before. This time there was a pandemic involved, which hit demand and supply equally. So are there any similarities between this global recession and those that have gone before. Phil Dobbie puts the question to Steve Keen in this latest Debunking Economics podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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10:05

Removing the green premium

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/04/24

40 world leaders go together virtually this week, for a bit of an impromptu climate summit called by Joe Biden, before the next big climate conference (COP26) inGlasgow in November. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast, Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen whether Bill Gatesd has the right approach. He advocates removing the green premium. His argument is, we don’t choose zero carbon emissions products because they are more expensive. If you remove this premium, then everyone will buy zero

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32:29

Yellen’s global tax is a non starter

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/04/12

Janet Yellen has repeatedly called for countries to raise their corporate taxes, so they are in-line with the increases she has planned for the US. There’s also been a call for companies to be taxed where they earn their revenue, rather than declaring profits in countries where tax is lowest. Her reasoning is transparent, of course. She wants to raise corporate taxes in the US and doesn’t want countries to move overseas, or shift their profits out of America. Is it a good idea? Prof Steve Keen likes

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32:43

Central banks investigate digital money

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/04/04

You might have thought that digital currencies were the domain of cryptocurrency evangelists, and were largely stores of wealth rather than money used for transactions. Now, it seems, central banks everywhere are investigating digital currencies as part of their modus operandi. Most money in central banks is digital, of course, so when they discuss digital money what exactly are they talking about? This week Phil Dobbier talks to Prof Steve Keen about why central banks are looking more closely at

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39:37

The Fallacy of the Supply Curve

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/03/28

Last week we looked at how economics text books that taught us the law of demand, and how fundamentally flawed it was. Today, equally as useless, the law of supply, with the supply curve representing the marginal cost of producing goods. Steve explains how its is flawed because of the assumption that as you produce more of something the cost of production rises. Phil asks, how does that relate to the idea of economies of scale? Is conventional economic theory arguing against itself? Hosted on Acast

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35:26

The fallacy of the demand curve

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/03/19

Steve Keen believes the way we look at economics is wrong from the ground up. Take the demand curve, for example. It shows how, when prices fall demand goes up, and vice versa. Whilst it works at an individual level, but attempts by theoreticians to demonstrate that this works at the aggregate level have all failed. In this episode we look at the Sonnerschein-Mantel-Debreu theorem, which looks at how price changes of one good will impact your consumption of that good and all others. The big failing,

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36:43

Global Britain, owned by the world

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/03/12

Post Brexit we were promised a global Britain. It’s got off to a bad start with a massive fall in exports to the EU in the first month of this new utopia. Meanwhile, there seems to be a lot of talk about Britain accepting inward investment, in particular encouraging foreign firms to list on the London stock exchange. This week Phil Dobbie discusses the various types of foreign trade, from inward to outward FDIs, corporate takeovers and UK share listings by foreign firms. Will any of these benefit

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29:40

Vaccination is a global pursuit

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/03/05

The UK chose to respond to a global pandemic by reducing the amount of money given in foreign aid. Yet COVID-19 is attacking every country in the world. So is climate change. And there will be other viruses to come. For example, Ebola is reported to be out of control in West Africa right now. It is not as infectious as COVID-19, but its fatality rate is way higher (maybe as much as 50 percent). So, how does the west protect the developing world, and itself, through mass vaccinations. Can it fund the

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30:03

Economies are too scarred to bounce back quickly

Debunking Economics - the podcast ·

2021/02/23

The UK won’t see an end to lockdown measures until July, but after that the hope of many is that the economy will bounce back quickly. The Bank of England governor has called it a coiled spring. Many are comparing it to the roaring twenties. Part of the reason for this optimism is the argument that many people in the country have saved money during the lockdown, because they haven’t been able to spend on shopping or on overseas holidays. The household savings ratio increased significantly last year

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