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 starting to challenge the US dominance in currency markets. As Pola, a Debunking Economics Podcast listener asks, what happens as BRICs nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) move to payments in their own currencies instead of using the US dollar? Beyond that, what if they develop their own trading currency, similar to the Bancor proposed by Keynes back in the 1940s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 for more information.

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 about taxation, asks Phil. Could demand be softened by taxing the high earners? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 self-sufficient approach turn back the clock on both those achievements. Listen in for why Steve thinks times have changed for good, as we focus on sustainability over efficiency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 cryptocurrencies that they can’t control. This week Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen if there is any potential for truth behind this fearmongering. Maybe we could all do with a bit of control! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Central banks the world over are busy lifting interest rates and, 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 slightly better off. The bigger concern is when they sell off corporate bonds, as Prof Steve keen explains to Phil Dobbie in this week’s podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 vested interest in maintaining the long-term viability. Is there a definitive answer and how can we apply the Tragedy of the Commons to capitalism today? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Central bankers and economists have often used the Phillips curve to determine the path of inflation. The problem is, they often get it wrong. No wonder then, that they question its validity when it doesn’t work the way it should. Call it operator error. On today’s podcast with Phil Dobbie, Steve Keen explains how most miss the dynamic aspects of Phillips’ observations – it’s the speed of change that counts, not a snapshot of employment levels at any particular time. Her also considered the changes in the price of inputs. On that basis, with unemployment rapidly falling and the price of imports rapidly rising, the Phillip’s curve has never been more relevant. So, does it tell us what happens next? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stagflation is that worrying combination of rises prices in a stagnant economy. Central banks believe the answer is to push up interest rates, to magically reduce inflation and miraculously demand returns to normal. There’s a debate as to whether that can be done without kickstarting a recession. Some argue that might be the poison pill we have to take – pointing to when Paul Volcker at the US Federal Reserve pushed interest rates as high as 21.5% , leading to recession, but ultimately seeing economic growth return. Steve Keen says this time, it’s different. And we can’t assume the inflation cycle is as transient as many politicians, economists and central bankers believe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BP made $12.8 billion profit last year, $4.1 billion on that in the fourth quarter. In the first three months of this year Shell’s profits reached $9.1 billion. Meanwhile pensioners and low-income families are struggling to keep their houses warm, as high energy prices add to the inflation squeeze being felt with food and other household essentials. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether this all points to the need for a windfall tax on energy companies who are enjoying massive profits through no-action on their part. And should it be a one-off initiative, or is this time to rethink how we tax these companies in a way that will engender investment in renewables? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.