Jim Stanford, the author of the popular Economics for Everyone (from which the cartoon to the left is taken), and I spoke at a double bill on the global debt crisis for the venerable Sydney institution “Politics in the Pub” last night.
We had a full house for an provocative evening on why the Dismal Science is neither necessarily Dismal, nor anything close to a Science, and why the debt crisis is still with us.
Jim, as well as being an outstanding non-orthodox economist, is also a very engaging speaker–as I whispered to the Chair (Professor Frank Stilwell, from Sydney University’s Department of Political Economy) while Jim spoke, he was a very hard act to follow!
I did my best, though as Jim noted, the “No Powerpoint” rule that Politics in the Pub enforces meant that I didn’t have my usual guide on what to say next, and I rambled somewhat. Jim on the other hand prepared his own “Pre-Powerpoint” guide and gave a much more well structured talk.
Jim is in New Zealand right now, on a self-funded sabbatical from his employer the Canadian Auto Workers Union. If you enjoy what you see in the video below, you can follow Jim’s work by visiting his blog, reading his posts on the Progressive Economics Forum, and read the occasional papers he writes for the Post Autistic Economics Review.
The video is lengthy–our talks and the question time afterwards lasted over two hours–but entertaining, and it opens with two songs by the Solidarity Choir.
Steve Keen's Debtwatch Podcast
Just out of curiousity. Out of all the global “expert economic pundits” that keep the MSM on-air, have anyone ever given a specific date when the current unsustainable debt will collapse?
I know nobody can predict the market 100% of the time. Yet, lately (excluding this blog), I’m seeing a lot of other sites endlessly rehashing the obvious. Also, if you’re so sure of your data, why is it unreasonable to not have various scenarios of how markets could play out?
The basis of good science is being able to reasonably prove your data. Exclude for a moment the dissenters in every situation (and please, no Al-Gore-climate-change-is-all-a-scam jokes). Not to pump up your ego, Steve. But here(while you may disagree with him), at least he has some sound footing when presenting his ideas.
All I’m seeing on 99.99% of those OTHER sites is rehashing the same old links. Buy gold now. Obama sucks. The world’s gonna end soon. So you’d better stock up on the weapon of your choice. And so on.
How many of these other pundits:
Have investments in defense-related companies?
Have investments in commodities? (Jim Rodgers was recently quoted as saying while insurrections are lousy for those in that country, for investors it can be a golden opportunity).
I try to watch various media sources worldwide online. And lately it seems like they’re turning more right-wing than usual.
You can’t criticize the bankers.
You can’t criticize hedge funds.
You can’t call for market regulation.
If a guest tries to do any of the above, you must
publically ridicule them.
Even if a pro-banking sector guest says something that you know is blatantly false, never publically correct them. Because the sponsors don’t like that.
Even if the pro-banking sector guest says something that the other guest agrees with, make sure that they scream at each other during the interview. Because the audience eats this stuff up.
If anybody complains about one of these interviews, is any real action ever taken? I know in many countries there are broadcast and print “regulatory bodies” that are supposed to oversee this stuff. But when was the last time a station in Australia or a paper got fined for a story? In the U.K. you have a Press Association. When was the last time they fined somebody (for getting say 5,000 complaints about a story)? Same thing in the States with the FCC. If you file a complaint, 99.9% of the time the answer is “it’s free speech. Don’t waste our time.”
Which means you can then either boycott them. Sue (and have deep pockets). Or, shoot your TV.
From here, it leads to the next question. Re: Australian business media, is Murdoch THAT powerful?
@1 Soho44 I agree with pretty much all you’ve said. I suspect most of the right wing pundits you see on USA TV are on cable channels, and of course the talking heads there are in the pay of the rich elite who have a vested interest in promoting their particular agenda. I find the daily show with jon Stewart to be a great source of amusement as he spends a lot of time mocking and taking these right wing “opinionators” to task over thier comments.
Australia is just as bad. Here at least there is some minor saving grace with the ABC 7.30 report and such, but even it is flawed. Forget getting anything resembling real journalism out of 9,7,10. Current affair and today tonight do nothing but biased fluff pieces pushing the agenda of whoever has the most advertising revenue on that channel.
Its galling to see the rubbish they pump out, becasue you know there is a whole country full of financial malfeasance that needs investigating and the news reports are bought and paid for by big business. Its appalling and reprehensible.
I caught the latest max keiser interview on the weekend with steve. It was very good. Max has a tendency to ramble but this interview was a good and on topic, and informative.
I note also, that it seems max has to broadcast on russian tv by the looks of things out of Paris. I wonder if this is becasue he could not get his contrarian views shown on mainstream TV, tho he seems to finaly have a voice on a USA radio show now.
Gentlemen,
I draw your attention to Michael Pascoe’s article in today’s Age online and quote this paragraph for your discussion.
“I’ve used the analogy before and will use it again: the Doomsday Forecaster sees a bus full of people heading towards a cliff and therefore gleefully forecasts that the bus will crash over the cliff and everyone in the bus will die – e.g. Steve Keen’s diabolical housing price tip. What is now allowed for is the tendency of the people in the bus to turn the wheel, apply the brakes or jump out of the windows. ”
Why do these commentators think that just because someone points out impending trouble that they are “gleefully” anticipating the event to occur? I think it speaks more to their bias and general ignorance of matters financial than the people they attack, in this case Steve Keen. I happen to agree wholeheartedly with almost everything Mr Keen has written and spoken about with regards debt and the looming housing crisis and think it is a ridiculous assumption to believe that he will be happy when the housing bubble pops (which it most assuredly will) I will be the first to welcome a return to affordable housing again but I am in no doubt that to get there will involve a lot of pain for people trapped in the current debt treadmill.
M.R.
What you say I can identify with. What I find difficult to come to terms with is that peole only want the “good” news that everything will be okay. Take Greece, the peole have enjoyed the “take” and now they hate the idea of repaying or the “give” back what was never earned in the first place.
If Steve identifies this scenario then he gets pillorised.
“The messenger gets shot!”
Soho44. It is good for you to have opinions and to seek your own truth from others opinions. It is hard to concieve that you could form these opinions if others have not offered the arguments for you to be able to from them.
Be thankful that there are such peolpe that can think so freely and are prepared to share them with you.
The same applies to journalism, Yes, MSM is so sterio typed it is not funny and newspapers are suffering at the expense of other forms of communication (electronic -in the form of Blogs or other self interests.- all are rather pathetic to some and informative to others)
All of this is called freedom of speech. Why would you or anyone else want to control other thoughts expressed openly.
Agree to disagree and move on for others once you have exercised your brand of control may not like what you dish up.
I am not against anything you say or you for saying it but when you apply your own philosophy it returns to where it started.
If we don’t like what’s on we can turn it off. If we don’t like what we read we don’t have to read it. It’s called individual choice by personal censorship.
What is needed is a correction to the bus analogy. The bus is on top of a mesa, and just gets faster and faster. Eventually it isn’t going to turn fast enough. In 2008 we had one wheel half over the edge, so the next turn could be very exciting. The problem is that is hard to predict when the edge is approaching, until you are staring at the abyss. That is why it is hard to predict the next event. The 1970 bear market was followed in only 3 years time by the 1973 bear market. I think that might be the sort of time span this time.
Well here we go. Political cowardice and self interest trumps common sense. Personaly im expecting another boost to the first home owners grant as the election date gets closer.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/03/2889223.htm?section=business
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has responded to the Henry tax review by saying Labor would never reduce the existing concessions on negative gearing and capital gains tax.
The latest official estimates show house prices jumping by 20 per cent over the past year and critics say that reinforces the need to wind back tax breaks that inflate house prices.
Thanks Spooky2009!
That is a great article. It sums up the whole sorry situation in one hit.
Steve, the video is no more visible I tried today Friday 21st May and the result is: video not found.
Cheers
The amendment I made would have been lost in the backup gunny; I’ll redo it now.
Awesome…you guys are good, but the singers at the beginning are priceless!!!
For as much as it is not a total remedy….it is a beginning.
In the NZ 2010 Budget there were some timid measures to start to cool off the investment properties mania and start to close the tax loopholes that in the last two years led the investment properties sector to a NEGATIVE Tax contribution of 500Millions ( lotsa money for lil New Zealand).
I was surprised by this budget, and more surprised that a National Govt. could put it together, increasing funding to Health and School teachers…and at least this year not coming up again with more “privatizations” BS. In the end the only thing I would have added would have been a differentiation of GST…lowering it for food items and basic necessities and increase it for consumeristic items.
I am really surprised Nationals pulled this….and a bit ashamed Labour could not put together a critique and suggest alternatives.
But in this kind of times….I am ready to listen to anyone who does the right thing, no matter of what darn colour they paint their tribe with…
And closing the Investment properties tax loopholes was the clever thing to do. Such a wretched thing as “loss bearing vehicles” are going to disappear.
A little tiny but serious atta boy to John Key….but I keep my watch. After so many years, I treat politicos with “Beware of gift carrying Greeks” attitude.