Debunking Economics, with Professor Steve Keen

This episode, we have a guest on the show that I'm very excited
about. Professor Steve Keen is an economist and author who has
been a longstanding critic of neoclassical economics, which has
included writing the bestselling Debunking Economics book and
hosting the podcast of the same name, as well as developing
several alternative models of the macroeconomy. In recent years,
he has turned his attention to how neoclassical economics has
tried to deal with the issue of climate change... and, well, the
fact that his paper is called "The appallingly bad neoclassical
economics of climate change" probably tells you something of how
he has responded to it.


I was lucky enough to detain him for quite a while, so I've split
the interview into two parts. They complement each other, but
they can be listened to independently, depending on what you're
interested in.


The first part deals with Professor Keen's background, his
critique of neoclassical economics, the parallels - and
differences - between economics and physics, and a little about
financial crises and possible steps we could take to deal with
the economic fallout of COVID-19.


The second part dives deep into the critique of the neoclassical
economics of climate change: specifically, how economists have
consistently been overconfident in their projections of climate
damages and arguably helped lead us towards weak climate
policies, and how we might hope to change this in the future. I
think this is an incredibly important message and subject to
discuss and debate, because unfortunately this stuff has been
extremely influential - to the point where one of the main
culprits has the so-called Nobel Prize in Economics - so I really
urge everyone to listen to that.


Thank you for listening to this episode of Physical Attraction,
and thank you to Steve Keen for being so generous with his time
and agreeing to be interviewed. You can find Steve on Patreon at
www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen where you will have access to a
good number of podcasts and posts on economics for free, and
where you can subscribe for further access to more shows. He's
also on Twitter @ProfSteveKeen where you can keep up with the
latest news on this work.


You can find us online at physicspodcast.com. There, you'll find
the episode guide on the About page, where you can find all of
the episodes we've done on subjects ranging from the birth of
stars to the end of the world, and the episodes in the ongoing
Climate 201 series which talk about the science, economics, and
policy of climate change in much, much greater depth. There you
can also get in touch with me with any comments, questions or
concerns you might have through the contact form, and you'll also
find links to support the show on Paypal for a one-time donation
or Patreon for longer-term subscriptions. Thanks very much to
everyone who has done that already. Until next time then, please
do - take care.