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AI, inequality and basic income

AI, inequality and basic income

Phil happened upon a book to Australian economist Joshua Gans (and Andrew Leigh) called Innovation & Inequality – how to create a future that is more Star Trek than Terminator. He discusses some of the concepts with Steve, including whether companies responsible for the creative destruction of other industries ...

The Burnham Factor

The Burnham Factor

Andy Burnham is now the British Prime Minister but, Phil asks, aside from convening cabinet meetings in the north, will he do anything different to his predecessor. No, he will follow the same neoclassical economics approach as all Prime Ministers, with an obsession for balancing the books, rather than developi...

The unrelenting progress of winner takes all economics

The unrelenting progress of winner takes all economics

This week Phil and Steve talk about the staggering accumulation of capital, which has ratcheted up since the pandemic. In the US the top 0.1 percent of companies hold 88 percent of all corporate assets. In 2017, the top 10 S&P companies accounted for 20% of the market cap of all 500 companies, now they account ...

Too slow for zero?

Too slow for zero?

This week Phil and Steve confront the mathematical and environmental reality of a "zero growth" future, sparked by a debate over the deflationary traps of finite currency systems like Bitcoin. Steve thoroughly dismantles standard neoclassical theories of "decoupling"—the fantasy that global economies can indefi...

Challenges for the reserve currency

Challenges for the reserve currency

How much longer can the United States rely on the US dollar to dominate the global financial system, and what happens when the cracks finally start to show? In this week's Debunking Economics podcast, Phil Dobbie and Professor Steve Keen travel back to the 1944 Bretton Woods conference to revisit John Maynard K...

The world’s anti-migration shift to the right

The world’s anti-migration shift to the right

Phil and Steve confront the global surge in anti-immigration rhetoric and right-wing political momentum, tracing its roots to the structural failures of neoliberalism rather than the actions of migrants themselves. Steve dissects how decades of fiscal paranoia, deregulation, and slashed public spending on healt...

GDP is hopelesss as a relative measure

GDP is hopelesss as a relative measure

Steve and Phil critique our systemic over-reliance on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the definitive baseline for comparing global economies and measuring societal well-being. The discussion underscores a fundamental flaw in neoclassical modeling: while GDP measures raw industrial output, it completely fails to...

Aussie housing investment policies

Aussie housing investment policies

This week Phil and Steve dig into the storm of controversy over Australia's new budget rules targeting property speculators. The Labor government has scaled back negative gearing and abolished the 50% capital gains tax discount for established dwellings—major tax shelters that have historically rewarded people ...

Hedging an Uncertain Future

Hedging an Uncertain Future

This week Phil challenges Steve on how the futures market handles terminal risk, pointing out that oil prices slope downward over time simply because traders blindly assume the Strait of Hormuz will reopen. Steve agrees and tears into the financial sector, explaining that modern pricing models dangerously mista...