HARDtalk interview today

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Update: the program was delayed by events in Egypt. It will now go to air on Thursday November 24th, and be repeated 3 times–see the News element in the side bar for times.

I was inter­viewed by BBC HARDtalk when in Lon­don last week. Though the inter­view was moti­vat­ed by the launch of Debunk­ing Eco­nom­ics II last month, the inter­view focused almost entire­ly on the issue of a mod­ern debt jubilee.

HARDtalk is well-named: the ques­tions are from a “Dev­il’s Advo­cate” per­spec­tive, the ques­tion­er sets the agen­da, and it’s rather HARD to put a per­spec­tive based on a non-stan­dard analy­sis in such a sit­u­a­tion.

The inter­view was also over before I knew it. Though the inter­view­er Sarah Mon­tague warned me before­hand that  the 25 min­utes would pass in a flash, as she began her wrap-up ques­tion I felt rather like Michael Pallin in that famous Mon­ty Python sketch “Is this the right room for an argu­ment?”:

A: (Rings bell)  Good Morn­ing.
M:  What?
A:   That’s it. Good morn­ing.
M:   I was just get­ting inter­est­ed.
A:   Sor­ry, the five min­utes is up.
M:  That was nev­er five min­utes!
A:   I’m afraid it was.
M:  It was­n’t.
Pause
A:   I’m sor­ry, but I’m not allowed to argue any­more.
M:  What?!
A:   If you want me to go on argu­ing, you’ll have to pay for anoth­er five min­utes.
M:  Yes, but that was nev­er five min­utes, just now. Oh come on!

(Click here for the sketch on Youtube; if you haven’t seen it before, you’re in for a treat)

Though I would have liked more time, and a dif­fer­ent way in which to put a high­ly uncon­ven­tion­al argu­ment, it was still pleased to be able to put it.

As an Aus­tralian res­i­dent, it was also a salu­tary expe­ri­ence to spend time in Amer­i­ca, Ire­land and the UK. The mood, espe­cial­ly in Ire­land, is–in a word–depressed. With the offi­cial­ly record­ed lev­el of unem­ploy­ment at 14 per­cent in Ire­land, and growth fore­casts for the UK reduced to a mere 1%,  hopes that this might be a pass­ing cri­sis have evap­o­rat­ed, and con­fi­dence in the capac­i­ty of con­ven­tion­al poli­cies to restore growth is min­i­mal. Ideas that would be dis­missed out of hand in Aus­tralia were seri­ous­ly con­sid­ered in Europe and the USA.

If you’d like to lis­ten to the HARDtalk inter­view, use this link to locate the time of broad­cast in your coun­try:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-12957298

It may also be watch­able on this new ser­vice I dis­cov­ered while search­ing for broad­cast details:

http://beta.www.livestation.com/

http://beta.www.livestation.com/bbc-world

For Aus­tralian view­ers, it goes to air at 3.30pm and 8.30pm today (Syd­ney time), and 2.30am and 8.30am tomor­row. BBC World Ser­vice is on sta­tion 649 on Fox­tel.

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About Steve Keen

I am Professor of Economics and Head of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University London, and a long time critic of conventional economic thought. As well as attacking mainstream thought in Debunking Economics, I am also developing an alternative dynamic approach to economic modelling. The key issue I am tackling here is the prospect for a debt-deflation on the back of the enormous private debts accumulated globally, and our very low rate of inflation.