Lecture 3 in Becoming an Economist at Kingston University

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This lec­ture intro­duce the Aus­tri­an school of thought, which is close­ly relat­ed to the Neo­clas­si­cal mainstream–in that it shares its util­i­tar­i­an the­o­ry of val­ue, accepts basic sup­ply and demand analy­sis, and sees cap­i­tal­ism as gen­er­al­ly tend­ing towards equi­lib­ri­um. But it is also high­ly crit­i­cal of the main­stream for the absurd assump­tions about indi­vid­ual knowl­edge that it is will­ing to make to pre­serve its equi­lib­ri­um-ori­ent­ed math­e­mat­i­cal approach. It sees cap­i­tal­is­m’s strengths as how it encour­ages inno­va­tion, which is an equi­lib­ri­um-dis­turb­ing process, and regards mon­ey as being both inte­gral to cap­i­tal­ism and the pri­ma­ry source of eco­nom­ic cycles.

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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.