Debunking Economics - the podcast

According to the World Health Organisation, Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world. New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Sadly, the ROI of antibiotic research is now too low for most pharmaceutical companies to consider. In this week’s free edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie and Prof Steve Keen talk about the failings of the free-market system and health provision. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Regular listeners will know that most money in circulation is created, bot by central banks, but by commercial banks when they issue loans. In this week’s podcast Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen how fundamental this is to the slow growth, low interest economy the world has found itself in. Isn’t there a danger that banks will limit the supply when times are bad when, in fact, what the economy needs at those times is more money? Just how much influence do central banks have on the activities of commercial banks these days? Should there be more regulation to control how much money banks create? The answer is yes, but only for money created to fund certain times of loans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain gave us the steam engine and so many other inventions. But what has it done lately. Not a lot. Is it because we have beenhamstrung by Brussels, and we'll be free to goback to those halycon days after Brexit. We need entrepreneurship and innovation, says Steve - but a lot of that has to come from the government sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The markets are concerned that we are on the verge of a global recession. How do they know? Not from reading tea-leaves but by studying yield curves. An inverted yield curve has signalled every recession since the 1980s. So, Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen, does that mean next year is going to be 2008 all over again. In short, no is the answer. 2008 was caused by a collapse in credit-based demand. We’re not seeing the same level of decline in that demand this time. So, the good news is, we might not be heading for a recession. The bad news is it more likely to be a sustained period of stagnation and central banks aren’t helping us out of it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A little over 75 years ago World powers signed the Bretton Woods agreement, that saw the US dollar as the planet’s reserve currency, tied to reserves of Gold. In this week’s podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about how the agreement missed the opportunity to create a separate reserve currency, the approach preferred by John Maynard Keynes. They also discuss why the link to Gold reserves was eventually removed, the role of the IMF and World Bank, both born out of Bretton Woods, and whether now is the right time for another get together to sort out the world’s money system. With President Trump complaining a lot about currency manipulation lately, now seems as good a time as ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Economics is still built around the age-old factors of production – land, labour, capital and, perhaps, entrepreneurship. Yet, you can’t run machines without power and you can’t expect workers to function without food. So why isn’t energy implicitly included as one of the key functions of the economy? Clearly it should be. In today’s Debunking Economics podcast Professor Steve Keen explains how he is working with climatologist Tim Garrett and mathematician Matheus Grasselli to develop a new model, one that reflects the importance of energy in the functioning of an economy and the limits it places on global growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boris Johnson wants to introduce free ports in the UK. International trade secretary Liz Truss has said the 10 ports would create thousands of jobs. So, will these new tariff free zones, where goods can be imported and exported without the paperwork, help Britain grows its manufacturing base, or is it just a way to try and keep car plants onshore for a while longer as the UK heads to a no-deal Brexit? Phil Dobbie puts these questions to Prof Steve Keen, who has spent some time early in his career studying the impact of free ports in China – but there the proposition, and the opportunity, was radically different. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the US Federal Reserve prepares to cut rates today, and the European Central Bank grapples with the how to boost growth without pushing interest rates into negative territory, Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether we’ve reached the end of the line for monetary policy. Even central banks are admitting more needs to be done by governments to provide stimulus to flagging economies. Isn’t it time to question the extent of the influence of central banks and some of the fundamental theories they treasure when reaching policy decisions? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a recent Debunking Economics podcast Steve Bannister explained his climate modelling and how existing energy technologies won’t scale enough to save the planet. Omar Cheema, managing director of Vivantive, disagrees. His company provides advice on clean energy projects for multinational corporations, governments and investors. He says solar power is already providing an efficient source of energy, the obstacles are geopolitical, vested interests and the resistance to provide the necessary capital for regions that could move quickly on solar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is debt good or bad? Or does it depend on the type of debt? One of our listeners, Roy Langston, wrote in to ask why Steve Keen is in favour of bank created debt. Shouldn’t investment be funded by other people’s savings? If debt is funded by money created by banks, pursuing income from the interest, doesn’t it create too much debt money, which Steve is calling to resolve through a debt jubilee? An interesting question that Phil Dobbie puts to Steve, as well as discussing when debt can be a good thing, even if the money was created by banks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.