The US Federal Reserve is getting rid of it, the European Central Bank has talked about it and could go next. Quantitative Easing, it seems, is falling out of favour. But was it doing any good any way? In this podcast Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen whether QE helps the broader economy or just the financial elites? Vitor Constancio, the Vice President of the European Central Bank has said that QE reduces inequality because it creates jobs for low income workers. Is he right? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 10 years since the start of the global financial crisis, when the UK saw a run on the Northern Rock Building Society. A year letter the contagion spread, with banks falling like flies on both sides of the Atlantic. So what went wrong and are we repeating the mistakes. Phil Dobbie talks to Professor Steve Keen, one of a handful of people who predicted the crisis the first-time round. In this podcast he suggests that, this time, we might not see banks collapsing, but the economic impact will be just as spectacular.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK Prime Minister has made noises about reining-in executive pay. Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen whether high executive salaries are really such a problem. If somebody can demand such a high salary shouldn’t we congratulate them and aspire to do the same ourselves. Isn’t it the politics of envy to think otherwise? Or are they distorting the economy – and perhaps the biggest influence on the value they add to the company doesn’t come from their expertise, but from elsewhere. These factors are all discussed in this half hour Debunking Economics podcast, that also examines ways of fixing the problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Funding retirement seems to be a global issue. Individual pensions often fall short of the required amount and governments struggle so much with the liability of future pension costs that they keep pushing back the age at which we can retire. Professor Steve Keen believes we have got the whole approach to retirement wrong in so many ways. For a start, by encouraging savings we are pulling money out of the economy. Secondly, pension funds are placing their money in the share market, pushing up the price of equities. In this podcast, with Phil Dobbie, he suggests we return to the idea of state pensions – or a universal basic income – with money created by the government. The problem is, we can’t use that money to buy imported goods to meet the demands of our ageing population. In short, we need to reindustrialise if we are to fix our retirement crisis.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bitcoin was an interesting development in the history of money – a currency created from an algorithm. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Professor Steve Keen explains to Phil Dobbie how Bitcoin works. They also discuss how other new currencies could be used to manage online transactions and the threat that could create for the banking sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In previous podcasts Professor Steve Keen has said the availability of energy is the key driver of growth. It fuelled the industrial revolution and inhibits growth in societies without sufficient access to it. In this podcast Phil Dobbie asks whether that justifies President Trump’s approach to energy policy – to make it cheaper, local and more readily available, with less controls on its production. Will lower cost fuel make America more productive? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do we need population growth to enjoy economic growth? Phil Dobbie puts the question to Professor Steve Keen, who argues it’s not necessary and it’s a misnomer that cannot be sustained. Yet many countries see immigration as the only way of sustaining growth, including Kevin Rudd’s pitch for a Big Australia back in 2010. As he saw, and recent politics demonstrates, high immigration is not a popular policy and most people don’t equate it with economic prosperity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s an argument that economics can never be science because it involves the behaviour of humans. You can’t apply empirical rules in the way you do with physical sciences. In this episode of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen whether this means economics should never be seen as a science. Steve says economics can be a science, if economists behaved like scientists – that means recognising anomalies and adjusting their theories accordingly. To date, this isn’t happening. The response to the global financial crisis being a significant case in point. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australians talk of giving everyone a fair go. But it has different meanings for different people. For some, it implies freeing up the ability for people to get on with making a dollar without government interference. For others, it means the government offers the opportunity for all, presumably through subsidies and access to education. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen how seriously should we take the laissez fare approach in the twenty first century. The answer, it seems, is that maybe the big government approach has gone a little too far. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most of us tend to have a vague notion of what Keynes stood for. Why, even neo-classic economists seem to be using his theories to rescue the economy from the ravages of the global financial crisis. So, what is post-Keynesian economics, and how does it differ from the theories espoused in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. In this podcast, Professor Steve Keen explains to Phil Dobbie what post-Keynesian thinking is and how it differs from the thoughts of Lord Keynes himself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.