Debunking Economics - the podcast

Milton Friedman had a theory that the wealth of a nation was determined by the amount of money and the velocity of that money. In other words, if we exchanged money more quickly we’d all be better off. Phil Dobbie asks Professor Steve Keen if Friedman’s theory is correct and, if so, why doesn’t government policy focus on speeding up money? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast Phil Dobbie talks with Steve Keen about the rationale behind government austerity measures, the thinking being that government debt is holding back the prospects for economic growth. Steve argues that this assumes the economy behaves like chipmunks, hording nuts for the winter. In effect, the approach takes money out of the economy, doing the opposite of helping the economy grow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Steve Keen argues that monopolies commissions have got it wrong, believing the consumer wins when all firms in an industry are of similar size. He argues that the best outcomes occur when businesses form a "power law" structure. And control of monopolies, he reckons, should be handed over to evolutionary biologists. Find out why in this edition of The Debunking Economics podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump’s unexpected win reflects the dissatisfaction of huge swathes of disenfranchised voters across America. They are upset because they are not seeing their lifestyle improve, yet the rich elite seem to be accumulating the wealth with little or none of it trickling down to the rest of the population. In this episode of The Debunking Economics podcast Steve Keen says money needs to be forced to circulate rather than accumulate. But how do you do that? Phil Dobbie asks Steve whether higher taxes are part of the solution, which would be ironic given the US President elect has done a good job of evading them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Steve Keen explains why he is an ardent supporter of Brexit. Phil Dobbie, who believes Britain should stay in as long as the EU exists, asks whether a more moderated approach to the original idea of a European Union would have been a better outcome. But it’s clear Steve’s thoughts are that the concept, as it stands, is so abhorrent that a Brexit is needed to encourage others to do the same and pull the whole thing apart. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reserve banks spend a lot of time discussing the interplay between inflation and interest rates. In this third episode of the Debunking Economics podcast we look at how the two are inter-related and whether the bond is as tight as Central Banks seem to believe. How does it relate to the interest rate your own bank charges for a mortgage? And why, when interest rates are so low, are we not seeing the expected level of inflation growth?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump has some weird ideas. Building a wall along the southern US border and getting Mexico to pay for it, for example. But, as Steve Keen explains, on other matters Trump’s intuition is right, he just loses the argument with some of the detail. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week the inflation rate in the UK hit one percent. It’s a long way from the high teens of the late seventies and early eighties. In this inaugural episode of The Debunking Economics Podcast, Phil Dobbie suggests that low inflation is a good thing. It means prices aren’t going up. But, Prof. Steve Keen suggests there’s one reason we should be welcoming higher inflation. He also discusses the role of inflation in monetary decisions made by Reserve Banks around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.