Podcasts about prof steve keen

Liz Truss, the UK's latest Prime Minister, has vowed to review the mandate of the Bank of England (BoE). It's unclear what outcome she wants, although Kwasi Kwarteng, who is likely to be the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, has suggested the BoE didn't move fast enough to lift interest rates. Does that mean she wants more influence over the bank's decision making? On this week's podcast Phil Dobbie and Prof Steve Keen look at the approach taken by central banks this time round to reduce inflation and Phil asks Steve, if you were to change the function of central banks, what would you do? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the UK petrol cars emit 128g of CO2 per kilometre. In the US they drive bigger cars, for longer, so the carbon impact is that much greater. But cars, buses and motorcycles account for less than 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Switching to electric could make a difference (unless of course the electricity is coal powered) but will it make a big enough difference, and are the objectives for Net Zero by 2050 really achievable? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen, and asks, are we lulling ourselves into a false sense of security when we think electric cars are a big part of the answer to climate change? Subscribe to hear the podcast in full.

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. Subscribe to hear the podcast in full.

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! Subscribe to hear this podcast in full.

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. Become a subscriber to listen to the full version of this podcast.

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? Subscribe to hear this podcast in full.

The supply chain disruption from COVID, and the imperialist ambitions of Vladimir Putin have demonstrated, more than ever, the need for nations – or at least neighbouring groups of friendly nations – to be self sufficient in food and energy. Will we find the world returning to a spit between the West, autocracies and developing nations? Can each group survive without the others? Prof Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that we will still be reliant on autocratic regimes for mineral resources, and the world really needs to come together to tackle climate change. Even if that's a pipedream we at last need a plan for how we manage the world's resources and ensure we have a reliable source of food and energy, without kowtowing to despotic regimes. Become a subscriber to hear this podcast in full.

Property expert Russell Quirk maintains that housing will always be a good investment and prices will, in the long run, always go up. Perhaps this year inflation will rise faster, so in real terms prices may dip, but in the long run, he reckons, the direction will always be north. Prof Steve Keen on the other hand, maintains that, at some point, things will rapidly head south. Why? Because banks are offering loans through the creation of new money, which makes it easier for them to meet consumer demand, irrespective of how realistic house prices are. And they get locked into a feedback loop, where valuations are based on previous valuations. Your house is worth more because all the other houses around you are worth more. This, recons Steve, will come unstuck, possibly in a big way. He says we don't accept it because it's not happened in recent history. Just as we didn't expect a pandemic because we hadn't seen one like it for 100 years.

The UK the Chancellor's wife Akshata Murty was in the news a couple of weeks ago when it was revealed that she was claiming non-domicile status in the UK, so most of her income from her shareholding in dad's company in India could be taxed over there at a much lower rate. The issue for many was that she wasn't paying her fair share of tax. But does her wealth present a bigger problem. This week Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether Akshata Murty is an example of the rentier class, who make money from having money. And does that necessarily mean the money is used less well than if it was in the hands of good old-fashioned capitalists? Or is it all just a bit of jealousy, because we don't have wealthy parents? Subscribe to hear this podcast in full.

Economists like to think that there's an equilibrium that the economy is either briefly moving away from or heading back to, and it's all explained in those simple models we did at school. Those were mostly microeconomic models, of course, that are somehow magically interpreted at the mac level. Or there are more complex mathematical models that reflect only a tiny slice of the bigger picture. But didn't Sonnenschein–Mantel–Debreu theorem debunk that? This week Prof Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that even their work ignored a fundamental feedback loop which clearly demonstrates that equilibrium is fantasy land.  Subscribe to hear this podcast in full.

Professor Steve Keen, Honorary Research Associate with the Institute for Strategy, Resilience and Security at the University College London, was one of the handful of economists to realize that a serious economic crisis was imminent, and to publicly warn of it from as early as December 2005 (http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15892/). This, and his pioneering work on modelling debt-deflation, resulted in his winning the Revere Award from the Real World Economics Review (http://rwer.wordpress.com/) for being the economist whose work is most likely to prevent a future financial crisis. He is author of Debunking Economics, which explains in detail why the orthodox economic theory is not only wrong, but more of a threat to the survival of humanity and the more recent: New Economics: A Manifesto, which gives ideas of how we can shift to a new system of exchanging value.He is co-creator of the Minsky App  and of the Ecocore Universal Carbon Credits. In this episode, we explore some of the wilder falsehoods of the currently orthodox model of economics, and dive into the ways we could structure a model that could work differently. Debunking Economics Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/debunking-economics-the-podcast/id1484374606?i=1000552938203Patreon Site: https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeenUniversal Carbon Credits: https://ecocore.org/proposal/

The EU has talked about issuing new bonds to protect its eastern borders against Russia and to prepare Europe for a future without reliance on Russian oil and gas. Normally bonds are issued by individual countries. If the ECB felt the need to intervene it would buy up those bonds, normally proportional to the size of the member countries. Even during the pandemic, their pandemic emergency purchase program saw them buying up sovereign bonds from member countries. Could this time be different? Is there a Europe wide need that could see the EU operating a centralised budget to, for example, fund a European army? Well, they have already started down that track with the issuance of green bonds this year. How does it work? How does it create a budget through debt issuance, and see that money move to suppliers in individual European nations? The answer is, its complicated but not insurmountable. The question is, is a centralised EU budget, supplementing each countries own budgets, a good thing or a bad thing? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about what could be a new direction for the EU, where it wields money for pan-European spending projects. Become a subscriber to hear this podcast in full.

The war in Ukraine looks set to continue for a long time. A 90 minute high-level meeting between the two parties, mediated in Turkey, got nowhere today.  Meanwhile, the west is imposing more and more sanctions on Russia. Putin spoke calmy at a press conference today about how they will manage these increasing constraints on trade and finance, making out it wasn't really a big deal. So will they make their way through it, or will these sanctions be the nail in the coffin for Putin's plan? Or will they just make him more resolute? Will he start to attract the support from his people that Hitler gathered between the two world wars? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen, asking whether we are taking the right approach on this. Whatever the outcome, Steve reckons we should prepare for more unrest in the future, as demand for minerals heightens and the world is split between those with them, and those without them. Could this resource split and an increasing sense of protectionism become a deadly combination?

Inevitably, as governments spend more and more money to help their economies navigate through the COVID-19 crisis, the questions inevitably being asked is, how will all this be paid for? The assumption is, either governments will have to cut back on spending, or taxes will have to be increased. Few economists or politicians suggest that the debt is never repaid. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobie talks with Prof Steve Keen about how central banks, like the Bank of England, are creating money to cover this extra spending. Isn't there a danger that if it gets out of hand we'll end up like Zimbabwe, or Germany after the first world war? Once a central bank has created money to cover government debt, can it ever really be wound back? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Furloughed workers, self-employed grant schemes, increased unemployment benefits, low interest loans, quantitative easing – governments and central banks are pulling out all the stops to try and offset the economic consequences of COVID-19. So who is doing it well? Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen to evaluate some of the programs implemented around the world – which ones are effective, which help the finance sector but do little for the broader population, and is there enough of it given the size of the impact? Governments are now trying to pull back on stimulus programs, even though infections continue and unemployment is in danger of rising still higher? Will we have learnt anything at the end of this experience about how the economy really works? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is facing the greatest economic downturn of our time. In the US at least 15 million more people are unemployed than just a few months ago. There are fears of a second wave and, even if it is contained and a cure is found, the chief scientist at the World Health Organisation is now saying it could take up to five years to get the virus under control. Meanwhile, as governments inject trillions of dollars of stimulus into the economy, share prices are reaching all-time highs. How can that be? How can the markets behave as though we were in the midst of the best of times? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about what's really driving share prices ever upwards. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Governments everywhere have been pledging billions of dollars – in some cases, trillions – to help their economies navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of it has been spent supporting businesses and helping to sustain people's income. But what happens when we come out the other side. Quantitative easing is now widespread, but there's still an expectation those central ban purchases will be wound back. So what does that mean for the post-pandemic economy? A question Phil Dobbie puts to Prof Steve Keen in this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast. And are there countries who can't run up debts? Or companies or industries that can't operate effectively with the potential debt they have been forced to build up. Just how long will we be paying for the last few months? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In some parts of the world politicians, investors, business leaders and economists are behaving as though the Corona virus is almost eradicated. There are talks of easing up on restrictions, even though it's only through the lockdown that infection rates have been held back. If, instead, we believe epidemiologists, who tell us this thing is with us for some time, what will life be like on the other side. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen for his views on how our lifestyle and ways of business will change. Steve says it's the beginning of a fundamental change in the way we interact with our planet. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

He has been called the ‘Father of Economics', but how much of what he talked about and wrote about has stood the test of time? Have we fully understood his ideas of free trade and the invisible hand? And why is a man, who cared so much about the plight of the poor, now seen as the poster boy for the right and those with money to protect? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the work of Adam Smith – the good and bad – on this episode of the Debunking Economics Podcast. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The EU is debating whether funding to protect economies from the ravages of the Corona virus should come from centrally issued Corona Bonds, or from country-specific debt. In short, should Italy and Spain pay the price of their own misfortune and be landed with the bill to pay off for years to come, whilst totally sovereign nations, like the US, simply issue bonds which can be paid for by the central bank and for which the government has no intention of ever repaying. In this edition of Debunking Economics Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether the inflexibility of the Euro at a time like this will mean countries like Italy will no longer want to be part of it. Could this crisis expedite the demise of the Euro, and, perhaps, the EU itself? If so, is that a good thing? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Italy is getting swamped in corona virus cases, whilst China claims the only new infections now come from visitors from overseas. Donald Trump has gone from calling it a hoax to warning that 200 thousand Americans dying will be the best possible scenario. The UK has seen its death rate step up again today, whilst Germany has seen relatively few deaths and in Sweden folks are still eating out at restaurants. In this FREE edition of the Debunking Economics podcast, Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen which countries are handling the crisis the best, not just to contain the spread, but also to prepare their economy for the recovery. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the questions we might be left with after the virus has left us, will be have we become too reliant on international supply chains. Another might be, are we just too reliant on stuff? If we are to look after the planet do we need to lose our appetite for goods that we keep for a short while then throw away. Why not fix them? Is it time for a repair-based economy? And if so, how do you implement it? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the circular economy, hours before he fled Europe to escape the worst of the Corona virus. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Central banks have cut interest rates, some governments have introduced stimulus measures. But still the disease spreads and livelihoods are put at risk. In today's extra (free) edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Prof Steve Keen argues that stimulus measures are nowhere near enough, and serious sums of helicopter money need to be added to everyone's bank account. He has been arguing for some time that there's a need for a debt jubilee to get the economy moving, and now might be the time to do it, starting with the issuance of zero interest debt jubilees and personal bank deposits to cover mortgages and other outstanding commitments. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

We know what makes up the measure of gross domestic product – it is increases in private or government spending, increases in investment or an improvement in your balance of trade. But are those factors all driven by improvements in productivity driven by technology gains? This week on the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether technology improvements are the only real driver of economic growth? Can the economy continually grow without it? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The manufacturing numbers from China at the weekend showed how hard the sector was hit by the lockdown in Wuhan and neighbouring districts. In today's Debunking Economics podcast Prof Steve Keen says the rest of the world needs to prepare for a similar strategy, that will see production dive as workers don't show up and consumers don't go shopping. It seems likely that central banks will cut interest rates, but that won't stop businesses going bankrupt. So what is the correct policy response? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The multiplier is a basic concept of economics. If you come across some money and spend it, the person you spend it with then spends a proportion of it again, the recipient of which also spends some of it. In this week's podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about how savings and taxation influence the multiplier, including how different sectors influence the speed of the multiplier. Plus, the commonly held assumption that if money starts circulating too quickly then it'll assume less value. And what about those who want to accumulate wealth – do they stop the multiplier working? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Central banks started life as clearing houses and have evolved into instruments to, supposedly, protect the economy. But with interest rates at all time lows, often in the negative, have they gone as far as they can go? And how can they control the economy when governments can implement a fiscal approach at odds with monetary policy. Is it time to consider that Central Banks have a fuller role in the management of the economy, leaving governments to consider ow best to spend the money allocated to them? Or is that a breach of democracy? Phil Dobbie discusses the idea with Prof Steve Keen. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere it seems, except perhaps in parliament and in quite a few newspapers. But what does it mean for the future of work. Conventional economists would argue that people freed from their jobs will be able to pursue other productive outputs, helping to grow the economy still further. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether that's likely to happen Or are we facing the danger of structural change that will lead to widening income disparity. And what can we do about it, other than becoming laggards? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about Milton Friedman's concept of nominal value ,and how this runs counter to the argument that governments can create money to give the economy a sugar hit. The theory is, we'll realise that the extra helicopter money has devalued the currency so, after an initial burst of growth, we'll realise that we're actually no better off. So where does this theory go wrong? Other than the fact that most money is created by commercial banks, not governments extending their debt. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world leaders met at Davos and discussed climate change. Greta Thunberg told them they weren't doing enough, even though the President of the United States promised to plant some more trees and warned against the doomsayers with their predictions of the apocalypse. So, will there be an apocalypse. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen, arguing that he could be seen as one of the lefty Marxists who is using the climate change agenda to unsettle capitalism. And if we are to avoid the apocalypse, and planting trees isn't enough, what should we be doing. What should have been said at Davos? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

US equities, in fact shares around the world, seem to be running away with themselves right now. Is this healthy? And who wins, other than the investors who sell before the price tops out? This week Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the relationship between shareholder value and the growth and productivity of the company's shareholders are buying in to. Is part of the problem that the system promotes the managerial class, rather than incentivises entrepreneurs? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's taken us a few years to tackle the obvious topic for the Debunking Economics podcast, what are the biggest failings of neoclassical economics. Prof Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that it starts on page one of rudimentary economics textbooks, which the idea of the demand curve. Having debunked that, he moves on to the capital market line, used to determine investment decisions. Then it's the models being used to determine the impact of climate change. Then the concept of diminishing marginal productivity. And finally, the process of simplifying assumptions. Having dismissed all the major tenants of economics Phil asks Steve if there any laws that apply to the ‘science', in the same way that gravity applies to physics. Or is it all lost in the realm of unproven speculation? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the constraints of MMT is that to create more government money you need to have a sovereign currency. That rules out countries in the Eurozone and developing nations heavily reliant on the US dollar. Yet the idea of a Green New Deal is to resolve the issue of climate change using MMT. How can you pursue a global issue with a protocol that only applies in certain parts of the world? And how do you apply it without going down the dangerous road of world government? Questions Phil Dobbie puts to Prof Steve Keen in this week's Debunking Economics podcast. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Larry Randall Wray has suggested Modern Monetary Theory should be applied to create a Green New Deal. This week and next, Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the idea of creating government money to tackle the climate emergency. Would it work? Is there a danger that public sector spending will crowd out private investment in innovative approaches to renewable energy? And what can we learn from the original New Deal, from Roosevelt just after the Great Depression? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the Labour party conference recently, UK Shadow Chancellor outlined the policy aim of reducing the working week to 32 hours, with no loss in pay. It's been lambasted by many, who see it as a way of reducing productivity and costing jobs as businesses fail against overseas competitors with a lower cost base. In this week's podcast, Prof Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that the protagonists have got it wrong. The reason productivity has slowed is because companies are becoming too reliant on low cost labour. A rise in labour costs will encourage more investment in technology, which is what will increase productivity. It's impossible to increase the productivity of low skilled labour because humans can't improve their energy output without machines to help them. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Modern monetary theory tells us that we shouldn't worry about government debt – that governments can create money to spend to projects that will create full employment. Even if that is the case, what happens when the money you need isn't in your currency? It's a question Phil Dobbie puts to Prof Steve Keen in this week's Debunking Economics podcast. You can't create foreign currency, but you might well need it to pay for your government expenditure. So how does Modern monetary theory work in practice, for small countries that need foreign currencies to buy the imports they need to grow their economy? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

There were times when men would leave their families to head for the hills and pan for gold. There were times when the value of currencies was tied to gold. These days, there aren't so many discoveries and money is no long tied to the gold standard. Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen what is the use of gold today, and why do investors rush to it in times of uncertainty. And if it has nothing to do with monetary policy, why is most gold still locked up in the vaults of central banks? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit 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. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit 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. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit 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? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just after WW2 the UK government's spending on pensions in the UK amounted to about 2 percent of GDP – these days its nearer 8 percent. Despite this, over the years we've seen an increasing number of people funding their retirement through private schemes, rather than relying on state pensions. And yet, a recent YouGov poll shows that one third of the population reckon they won't have enough to live off when they retire. In this edition of the Debunking Economics Podcast Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen how we got into this situation – spending more and more money but failing to meet the needs of people in their old age. Is there a better way of ensuring that we can survive gracefully in our latter years? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the UK Labour party grapples with ways to reduce the advantage of inherited wealth, so we all start life on an equal footing, Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the idea of a land tax. Could it replace income tax as the major form of taxation? On the surface, it seems like it could counter a lot of economic problems, such as income diversity, housing affordability and the geographic concentration of capital. Unlike income tax, it's also impossible to dodge. So what's the downside? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most press coverage of Facebook's announcement of a new global currency by 2020 has been negative. Facebook already knows so much about us, can we trust them with our money? But they seem to have missed the intent of the Libra Foundation, which is a not-for-profit, of which Facebook is one of many equal partners, trying to extend access to banking to the 1 billion or so who are currently outside the system. Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about the benefits of the Libra project, whilst considering the impact it could have on local economies. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The EU is struggling right now. The Bundesbank has downgraded its 21019 GDP forecast from 1.6% down to 0.6%. The Italian government is being threatened for breaching the EU's spending rules. Yellow vests protestors have been out on the streets of Paris for 31 weeks now, fighting against inequality. This week the European Central Bank meets to determine how to boost the bloc's economic growth. But, Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen, isn't it time for a fundamental rethink of how the EU is structured and operates? With reforms to the EU, would Brexit have been necessary? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Morrison, or ScoMo as he is colloquially known, is staying on as Australian Prime minister for the next four years, or until his party oust him, which is becoming a bit of a tradition. But to many, the election result was a bit of a surprise and an immense disappointment. Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen, who offers a therapy session for progressive voters. The message is clear – you didn't want to win this time. Perhaps everyone, from both sides of politics, should be happy with this result. Listen to find out why. And look out for another blog post on this tomorrow. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oil prices are pushing back up to the US$80/barrel mark. If they stay above that level could it drive energy producers to more realistically pursue renewable sources with more vigour. In other words, as Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen, could we be reaching the point at which market pricing sees us moving to a more environmental future, without the need for any other intervention? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a simple question. Why do some countries, rich is resources, still end up poor? Can we blame it all on dictatorships, corruption and war, or did those regimes occur because of poverty? Why is so much of Africa in the depths of poverty? Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen how we can fix the issue. Should we be spending more on building up the capital to establish successful economies, beyond the current focus on disaster relief. And is that possible in the current political climate? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is a debt jubilee really the best way of ridding the world of near stagnant growth? Would a reset revitalise the economies of the world? And how do we stop ourselves getting into this situation again? Is the wealth divide part of this and could we fix that with a universal basic income? Phil Dobbie talks to Prof Steve Keen about a possible roadmap for the future and asks whether it's more a reward for those who don't like to work? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's an argument that outsourcing to cheaper countries overseas creates job losses and disadvantages the local economy. That's part of the argument Donald Trump is using to negotiate a new trade deal with China. What does Prof Steve Keen think? Phil Dobbie asks him, ‘if that's the problem, why are we seeing such low levels of unemployment right now?' Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.