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The most recent additions to this
site are my 2007 lectures for Honours
Political Economy.
-
Wiley Miller has just published
a truly hilarious Non
Sequitur cartoon on economics.
-
ABC
Online has published my opinion
piece on Australia's debt, "The
elephant in Australia's economic living room". Download this PDF
file for the story including graphics
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Michael Keating, Chairman of the
IPART (the Independent
Pricing & Regulatory Authority of New South Wales) and a former head of
the Departments of Employment and Industrial Relations, Finance, and Prime Minister
and Cabinet, has published an
article
on economic policy in The New Matilda. I have
written a
rejoinder
(PDF).
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Private debt is now 152% of
GDP (February 2007), with mortgage debt alone equivalent to 80% of GDP, up from under 20%
in 1990. The debt to output has been growing literally exponentially at
a rate of about 4% per annum since the mid-1960s. Even as a proponent of
Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis,
these numbers shocked me. I can't see how a serious debt-induced recession
can be avoided—though the China boom may delay the day of reckoning.
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It is an understatement to say
that my presentation on the dynamics of money creation at the Kansas City
Conference on the 60th anniversary
of Keynes's General Theory (September 16 2006) caused some controversy.
My thanks to all those who took part. Click here
for a commentary.
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I recently presented "Debunking
the theory of the firm" to a seminar at Queens College, City University
of New York. This collates my critique of the neoclassical theory of supply
to date, starting with the simple arguments given in Debunking Economics
itself, and culminating with the mathematical critique of Marshallian and
Cournot concepts of competition recently published in
Physica A (See below). I suggest
that whoever made the latest edit to my
Wikipedia entry consult this presentation and the
Physica A paper.
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Liam O'Hara, now working for
the Australian Treasury, did his Honours thesis at UWS on the mechanics
of interest rate targetting by Central Banks, using Australia's RBA
(Reserve Bank of Australia) as his case study. His thesis makes a major
contribution to understanding why the money supply is endogenous, and Liam
has kindly consented to it being made publicly available here.
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I have also linked Dennis
Feher's honours thesis on the manner in which the economics profession
neglected Irving Fisher's Debt Deflation Theory of Great Depressions.
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Two co-authored papers have just been published in
Physica A: "Worrying
Trends in Econophysics" and "Profit
maximization, industry structure, and competition: A critique of neoclassical
theory". The former aims to help the development of econophysics;
the latter aims to end the dominance of the theory of the firm by neoclassical
economics (both the strictly false Marshallian and the conditionally true
but irrelevant Cournot-Nash model).
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I've given a talk on Australia's paradoxical economic performance
"Australia: The Platypus Economy"
(PDF) to High School teachers and
students on behalf of UWS. Here are related New
Matilda articles on debt
and money creation).
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I discussed Australia's private debt bubble on Australian
Talks Back on ABC Radio National (August 2nd 2006) .
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This site now regularly rates in the top 20 on Yahoo's
search engine for economics (it hit No. 6 in mid-June 2006); thanks
to all those visitors who've made it that popular, and please forgive the
inordinate delay in revamping its tired interface! Hopefully I'll have some
time to work on it during Australia's Spring academic semester!
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Here is the MP3
(and transcript) of an interview
on debt broadcast on August 1st 2006 on ABC
Radio's AM.
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I am interviewed extensively in the Summer 2006 edition
of the Yale Economic Review
feature "The
Autistic Economist", which details the objections that the PAECON
(Protest Against Autistic Economics) movement makes about neoclassical economics.
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My critique
of the neoclassical theory of the firm, which covers both Marshallian
"textbook" theory and Cournot game-theoretic approaches, will
be published in Physica A this year. This paper disproves the popular
neoclassical fallacy that a firm maximizes profit by equating marginal revenue
and marginal cost; the derivation of this result is given in more detail
here.
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I'm getting a lot of hits from the Amos
Web "Economics with a touch of whimsy" website, since they
have kindly made Debunking Economics one of their featured web sites this
month. If you're coming from that site and want an introduction to my approach
to economics, I suggest you first check out my lectures
on Managerial Economics, which give a good overview of microeconomics
(and to some extent macroeconomics and finance) from an empirical perspective,
as well as a theoretical one. Next I would suggest my lectures on the History
of Economic Thought.
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Nature has
published a feature and
editorial
on the paper "Worrying
Trends in Econophysics" (to be published by
Physica A later this year) that I co-authored with Paul
Ormerod, Thomas
Lux and Mauro Gallegati.
While we criticise some aspects of what physicists are doing in economics,
we all welcome the incursion of true scientists into the muddled world of
economics and finance. My complaint, largely, is that they are not doing
enough―something I will detail at more length in some forthcoming
papers.
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My Cricks Lecture talk "Wowsernomics"
was podcast on Fourth Estate Radio,
along with an interview, on Sunday June 4th. These are my speakers
notes (from which I ad-libbed rather than read).
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I've provided a commentary on the recent Australian Federal
Budget for New Matilda
magazine. You'll have to subscribe to take part in the debate, but the text
of my commentary is here.
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My commentary on JK Galbraith,
who passed away on April 28 2006 at the age of 97, was broadcast on Radio
National's Perspective program on Monday May 8 at 5.55pm. Click here
to download the MP3; and here
for the script on the Perspective website.
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On May 1st I commented on the inadvisability of the RBA
increasing interest rates, given the level of private debt in Australia.
Household mortgage debt has exploded in Australia, from 17 per cent of GDP
in 1989 to over 75 per cent now. As a result, a 0.25 per cent rise in rates
has the same impact as a 1 per cent rise had back during Australia's last
speculative real estate bubble was brought unstuck by a huge rise in interest
rates. My interest in this area originates in Minsky's Financial
Instability Hypothesis, which I explain in fairly technical papers and
lectures available on that link.
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The latest additions are my lectures in macroeconomics
for UWS's
Economics
Honours students. I'll post each lecture as it's finished; they will
remain "draft" quality though until I have a chance to revise
them later this year.
-
The Yale Economic Review,
a journal published by the economics students of Yale University, recently
interviewed me about the PAECON movement.
Click here for my
answers to the questions they posed.
- "Worrying
Trends in Econophysics" will be published in Physica
A later this year (along with my latest "theory
of the firm" paper), and is also available for download from the
econophysics website.
-
My joint paper
(with Russell Standish),
presentation and
relevant programs on the theory of the firm,
as presented to the Econophysics
Colloquium, (held at the Australian National University on November
14th-18th 2005). This abbreviated paper
will be published in
Physica A some time in 2006. A detailed exposition of how the equations
were derived is promised in the paper; I'll post that some time in July
2006.
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Read the
article on the Post Autistic Economics Movement (PAECON)
in the September 2004 issue of
Adbusters. There are also links to the TrueCostEconomics
movement and suggestions about how to
enliven economics on your campus...
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Debunking Economics has been
translated into Chinese by Yanli Huo and the China Economic Publishing House.
The translated version should be available by March 2006. It will include
a preface on China's economic development
versus Russia's since 1990, and an epilogue
on reactions to the book since its English publication in 2001.
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I have added a page on Marx,
after I started to receive hits from Wikipedia
entries
surplus value, &
law of value,
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An interview with Melbourne radio station 3AW on the privatisation
of Australia's once public monopoly telecommunications carrier Telstra.
Click here to listen
to the MP3 file.
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My lectures in a new UWS subject
Managerial Economics
are available here. Most such courses are watered-down versions of neoclassical
microeconomics. My subject instead covers empirical research into actual
price setting by firms (which differs radically from neoclassical price
theory), Schumpeter's theory of entrepreneurial profits, empirical research
into business cycles, a critical perspective on stock markets, and the theory
of competitive (as distinct from comparative) advantage.
-
I have also written some new
lectures for the subjects
Nonlinear Finance and Advanced
Political Economy (these are necessarily more technical in content,
but I have tried to make them entertaining as well).
-
I reviewed (somewhat favourably,
to my surprise) Jeffrey Sachs's How
to end poverty on Radio National's Booktalk
on Saturday July 2nd. The program can be listened to either on-line
or via this MP3 file.
-
6.30pm,
September 23rd 2004: Paul Ormerod
(author of The Death of Economics & Butterfly Economics)
will be speaking at the University & Schools Club (60 Phillip Street
Sydney) at the inaugural UWS Heterodox Economics & Finance Seminar.
Please click
here to reserve a place.
-
Sydney September
23rd 9.15am: Paul Ormerod will be speaking on
ABC Radio National Life Matters.
The program will be available in Real Audio format on the day.
- I will be in Seattle for the Computational
Economics Conference, July 11-13, and will be speaking at the Elliott
Bay Bookstore on the state of economics today, together with Paul
Ormerod (author of The Death of Economics & Butterfly Economics) on
July 12 2003 at 7.30pm. Contact
the bookshop for bookings.
- Review of Michael Pusey's The Experience
of Middle Australia on Radio National's ABC
Booktalk (rebroadcast at 2.30pm on Thursday May 8th). Click here
for the text, Click here
to hear the review.
- Presentation
on Free Trade to Nexus Interface Conference, Sunday April 27th
- Recent
Chronicle of Higher Education article on the PAECON movement that
refers to Debunking Economics.
- Wednesday December 18, 6.30pm: Fabian
Society Forum with Lindy Edwards (author of How to argue with an economist)
at Berkelouw Books, Norton St. Leichhardt. Click
here to read my review of Lindy's book (forthcoming in the Australian
Journal of International Affairs)
- A commentary on Minsky's "Financial Instability
Hypothesis" and the state of the US economy and stockmarket on the Prudent
Bear website.
- Review
(RAM format) of Joe Stiglitz's Globalisation & its discontents
on Radio National's Book
Talk, Saturday September 28th 1.30pm (repeated Thursday October 3rd, 2.30pm).
The text of my review is here;
(MP3 format file here).
- Presentation
and talk on
errors in early economic models of the trade cycle, given at the Discrete
Dynamics in Nature & Society conference (Tokyo September 2002; some mathematics)
- Presentations to "Econophysics"
conferences in Jakarta (August 25) and Bali (August 28-31) (click here to
find out what econophysics
is): "Econophysics: Will
it improve upon the policy guidance given by economists?" (will take
some time to download due to large image files) and "Standing
on the toes of giants: Why econophysicists must be careful of the economic
foundations on which they build" (some mathematics)
- The talk (MP3 file) accompanying
the Jakarta presentation
- Critique
of neoclassical theory of growth (with fair bit of maths). Explains Shaikh's
critique of "Cobb-Douglas production function".
- Link to Yanis Varoufakis's excellent PAECON
article critiquing post-modernism as an unwitting supporter of neoclassical
economics.
- MP3
file of my talk to students at the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE),
Bucharest, April 2002.
- "Economics:
from emperor to vassal" (& review by Alex Millmow) in Australian
Universities Review Vol. 44, No. 1/2 (2001).
- Review
of Debunking Economics by Joern
Griesse, forthcoming in Millenium
(a journal of international studies). There have been many other reviews,
and I've lost track of them; I'd appreciate any readers letting
me know of them!
- Final version of "theory of the firm" paper, now titled "Aggregation
problems in the non-interactive equilibrium theory of markets". This
gives the formal arguments behind the case put forward in Chapter 4 of the
book, "Size does matter", which has easily been the most contentious
chapter (at least so far as neoclassical economists are concerned!).
- Comedy:
"Definitions of Capitalism" sent by Jon Cloke
- There was a seminar on Debunking Economics on the Hayek
discussion list from March 11-25. Click on "Hayek-L Forum - Current
Postings, March 2002" to read the debate. You can also apply to join
this moderated list.
- Debunking Economics is listed as one of the UK's Political
Studies Association's top seven "recent books which seem to make
a significant contribution to the development of political science in general,
or are likely to be of wide interest in the field". Click
here to read their review.
- "Dissent and the dismal science":
Review by Geoff Harcourt for the Australian
Financial Review
- "Textbook
examples fail scientific test"; The
Guardian, Monday December 3rd Business Section
'Professional economists include their own best critics. Steve Keen is one of the very
best. Drawing on three generations of expert dissent, adding his own, and translating the
algebra into plain language, he deploys a devastating theoretical attack on the
neoclassical theory which currently shapes the education of economists and much national
economic strategy.'
Hugh Stretton, Fellow of the Academies of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, and author of Economics: A New Introduction
'Debunking Economics may not delight economic conservatives, but it is certainly
necessary. Our hope must be that it will be read by enough people to prompt reform of our
economic thinking and save our endangered societies.'
James Cumes, author of How to Become a Millionaire without really working, and other
books
'Particularly useful to those, like myself, who are interested in economics but not
formally trained in it. Debunking Economics reveals that neoclassical economic doctrines
are faulty not because conditions have changed over time, but because the fundamental
assumptions from which such doctrines have been derived are less than self-evident. This
book will help create a more informed public so necessary for improving economic policy
fromulation in a democratic society.'
Henry C.K. Liu, Chairman, Liu Investment Group
' Keen's serious but accessible look at the shaky logical and mathematical foundations
of neoclassical economics will be of great interest to students and open-minded economists
alike. And his insightful survey of alternative schools of thought lends substance to his
call for a new economics, one that puts people first by analyzing the instabilities and
inequities of actual market economies.'
Don Goldstein, Associate Professor of Economics, Allegheny College
'A wide-ranging yet accessible critique of the staples of neoclassical pedagogy.'
Alan G. Isaac, Associate Professor of Economics, American University
'If you want to read a book which is economics for economists, then buy another book.
If you are interested in how the economy really works (and want to challenge an economist)
then read this book.'
James Dick, Professional Members Division, The Economic Society of
Australia
'This text carefully follows the form of argument familiar to all economics
undergraduates, though to conclusions from which undergraduates are more usually
protected. Avoiding polemic or hyperbole, the case that he presents is all the more
damning for its clarity and systematic approach.'
John M. Legge, Associate Professor, LaTrobe University
'Debunking Economics -- in combination with Hugh Stretton's A New Introduction to
Economics - will transform the way economics is taught and thought.'
Jan Otto Andersson, Professor of Economics, Åbo Akademi University,
Finland
'Refreshingly provocative.'
Geoffrey Fishburn, Department of Economics, University of New South
Wales.
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Debunking
Economics takes you behind the sanitized, airbrushed view of economics
given by its textbooks, and details the many critiques which have been made
of economic theory by economists, in a fashion which is accessible
to the intelligent non-economist. This site provides my presentations, lectures
and academic papers on economics, as well as supplementary materials for the
book
Debunking Economics. By far the largest resource here is my collection of
lectures on economics and finance that I give
at the University of Western Sydney.
