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Debunking Economics – the podcast — Education
Debunking Economics – the podcast

Economist Steve Keen talks to Phil Dobbie about the failings of the neoclassical economics and how it reflects on society.

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Copyright: © Copyright 2016 . All rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Regional wealth diversity – how economics ignores the dimension of space Apr 20, 2017

Show notes

London and the southeast accounts for a third of the UK’s gross disposable household income. The rest of the country somehow scrapes by. But it’s clear to see why. The proximity to other businesses means investment in London creates a greater return than any other region. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen whether the government should be involved more in regional investment, or will the laws of economics sort it out for itself.

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Does Modern Monetary Theory make sense? Apr 17, 2017

Show notes

Modern Monetary Theory states that’s, because the government of a country is the monopoly supplier of money, it has an unlimited capacity to pay for things and provide funds for other sectors. If the theory is right, why not provide enough money to ensure there is full employment, so full use is made of available labour? Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen whether he is a supporter of MMT. It seems he is, in part, but departs from the ideology when it comes to the theory relating to exports and imports.

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Lies, damn lies and employment statistics Apr 13, 2017

Show notes

Figures out in the US last week showed the unemployment rate had dropped to just 4.5 percent, a long way from the 10% rate back in 2009. Yet Donald Trump won an election, in part, because he was there to protect jobs for Americans. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen What’s the problem when so many seem to be gainfully employed? The answer, it seems, is that you can do anything you want with statistics. Take a look at this graph to see his point: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=djl1

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Do minimum wages reduce inequality? Apr 10, 2017

Show notes

Mark Perry, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Michigan, believes that raising the minimum wage will push costs up so high companies won’t be able to afford them. He wrote in his blog, “a $15 minimum wage maximizes the probability that an unskilled worker will be unemployed at $0.00 an hour instead of being gainfully employed”. So, is that the case? Prof Steve Keen argues he is making the mistake of many economists, applying a micro-economic argument to macro-economics. Find out how the Michigan professor got it so wrong.

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The rising impact of the gig economy Apr 06, 2017

Show notes

Latest UK employment statistics show that more than half of the jobs added in the last year went to the self-employed. Part of this will be entrepreneurs forging their own path, but many will be people forced to establish themselves as sole traders and work for companies on a more casual basis. In this podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the benefits and problems with the gig economy. On issue, of course, is the amount of money people make. Could the gig economy force a universal basic income?

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Can you have a free market for public goods? Apr 03, 2017

Show notes

It seems there’s a relentless desire to try and apply free market principles to public goods, like health, education, defence and research. Even though they usually operate in a monopolistic environment, bureaucrats are always finding ways to apply measures – fiscal or performance based – that distort the way these goods operate. So, in this podcast Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen if there are occasions when marketized principles can be applied to public goods, in the interests of improving performance.

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Do poor people make the rich richer? Mar 30, 2017

Show notes

Karl Marx argued that the bourgeoisie got rich by creaming their wealth off the proletariat who did all the work. But in this podcast Prof Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that it’s not the capitalists who are getting rich from the workers – it’s the often ignored “third class” of citizen, who make up a large part of the wealthiest people on the planet. And they’ve been increasing their influence over recently decades.

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Does misinformation feed capitalism? Mar 27, 2017

Show notes

Traders buy and sell based, often, on hearsay. Mum and dad investors can take a punt based on advice from ‘experts’ or from the lies they see in a company prospectus. Whatever the level of investor, you always base decisions on imperfect information. Like with anything, the person doing the selling knows more about the state of the product than the one doing the buying. So, what if we had more information? Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen what would happen if the information imbalance didn’t exist. Could we avoid market crashes, for example? Can financial markets survive without cashed up gamblers?

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Government debt, when does it become a problem? Mar 21, 2017

Show notes

In the seventies US government debt was less than 40 percent of GDP. Now, it’s over 100 percent. And the US is still to pass a change to the debt ceiling, which inhibits the government’s ability to spend more money. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast, Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen when government debt becomes a significant issue. Conventional economics suggests too much spending can raise inflation, which reduces the attractiveness of government bonds, making it more difficult to raise money. And what about a reduction in a country’s credit rating? Steve suggests we think in too linear fashion on the issue. But there is a simple fix if the problem ever gets insurmountable.

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Which creates growth – supply or demand? Mar 17, 2017

Show notes

Which comes first, demand or supply? If you want to grow an economy should you offer money or tax cuts to increase demand, or should you fund jobs to create supply and wages. Donald Trump, like many politicians before him, believes cutting taxes will make more spending power available to create more jobs. Is he right, when many classical economists have argued the opposite – that job creation is the key to spending power. It’s the timeless chicken and egg question except, in this case, Prof Steve Keen believes there’s a very clear answer.

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