Steve Keen at INET

Professor Steve Keen recently spoke at the INET conference. It was a short talk, but full of his usual gems. His talk starts at 20.45 (I can't seem to embed with a time reference).

Notable quotes

"Workers pay for higher [private sector] debt via a lower shares of wages."

"Inequality leads to economic collapse"

"The most important driving force in a capitalist economy is private debt."

Just Banking Conference

Ann Pettifor... "we're going to have a cataclysm"

See also the Green New Deal.

Mary Mellor (Emeritus Prof of Sociology)... "what we need is de-growth... how much is enough?"

See also Bringing Economics Down to Earth.

Prof Steve Keen. "Neo-classical economists don't include banks or debt or money and that is why they didn't see the crisis caused by banks, debt & money coming."

Prof Richard Werner

How can we make banks social useful?

Economic Revisionism

Recently the Guardian published an article by J. Bradford Delong (June 29, 2012) Explaining current US Treasury rates is beyond even the economic prophets which tries to rehabilitate mainstream economists. Sadly no comments were possible on the paper's website, but two non-orthodox economists have replied:

Bill Mitchell: Revisionism is rife and ignorance is being elevated to higher levels.

Steve Keen: What utter self-serving drivel, Brad Delong!

Both of these commentators point out in some detail, with extensive quotes and many links, that the people Delong suggests we trust with the economy have always been and still are clueless about what is going on. They are part of the problem not the solution.

Meanwhile the scandal over interest rate fixing is highlighting how corrupt banks and the finance sector have become under deregulation and a culture of greed.

Economic growth, asset markets and the credit accelerator

"According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, the “Great Recession”is now two years behind us, but the recovery that normally follows a recession has not occurred. While growth did rise for a while, it has been anaemic compared to the norm after a recession, and it is already trending down..."

"The only sure road to recovery is debt abolition—but that will require defeating the political power of the finance sector, and ending the influence of neoclassical economists on economic policy. That day is still a long way off."

Steve Keen's recent paper for the Real-World Economics Review. 57.

2008 "The US Bailout Won't Work"

Here's Steve Keen being interviewed in 2008, explaining why the US bank bailout wouldn't work. And of course he was right. It didn't work. Are they listening yet? Not hardly.

Steve Keen on BBC Hardtalk

SK on BBC Hardtalk.

"Write off debt, bankrupt banks, nationalise financial system (temporarily), and start all over again."

"We're already in another Great Depression"