The least “wonkish” video I’ve found of Steve Keen…

  By Linda G | July 16, 2012 - 12:21 | , ,

 

This is a relatively short interview (about 12 and a half minutes – ah! I’ve since found the original interview, which is actually about twice as long, and will replace the shorter one)… in which Keen discusses in more general terms the difference between the Neoclassical Model and the model he’s been working on, and why there’s such a strong need for a paradigm shift.

In that sense, I found it to be something of a nice break between the necessarily far more “wonkish” videos featuring Keen that I’ve been watching lately, which are focused on describing, in a fair amount of detail, the two models themselves (the Neoclassical model, which he’s long been working to debunk, and his model, The Minsky Model, which he advocates for as a far more accurate economic model that should replace the Neoclassical one).

This video assumes some knowledge of the two models, which a person can find in all sorts of Keen’s videos and writings.  Using that work as a jumping off point enables Keen here to head into a more general discussion about the implications of using the long-entrenched Neoclassical model and why a change to a better model is so important.

This kind of discussion, which is an unusual find for me in my search for more from Keen, is helpful for me as a layperson because it enables me to get a better feel for the real world impacts of using one model vs. another.

Written by: Linda G on July 16, 2012.
Tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • lgrinaker

    You are quite a piece of work, Stevo… 

  • lgrinaker

    Here’s another interview with Keen with laypersons in mind (the interviewer standing in for the likes of me asking Keen questions); this time via BBC’s HARDtalk:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGkmgnprrIU

    Linda

    • lgrinaker
    • Lyle

      Absolutely fascinating and so much we’ve heard here – often. “Unorthodox Economists” – seeeeems… those who make too much sense to be taken seriously. Is it Atlantian Utopia I see visions of? !!!
      As Nick and others have repeated – ‘jubilee’ hain’t gonna happen. Well… they didn’t use hain’t. :)

      • lgrinaker

        Well, even if a jubilee along the “go all out” lines that Keen prescribes were to take place, as significant as that would be, we would still be left with several real-world challenges, including rapidly dwindling real-world resources and rising volatility within all sorts of natural systems.

        Still, I suppose it would mean a lot to significantly address at least one of the major challenges we currently face, ;-) – and a great global financial crisis (or an increasing rate and intensity of a number of them) is one of those challenges.  And if money becomes a tool that we can perhaps mishandle a little less than we do now, ;-), then maybe, just maybe, we could better direct it towards investments that might help us to at least better brace for some of the other challenges that are emerging.

        As far as “never gonna happen,” who knows what may be done if the urgency to try alternatives is strong enough?  And indications are that we are entering into some unchartered territory as far as circumstances that society will be facing worldwide. I agree, though, I certainly don’t foresee anything like that happening in the current environment, in which muddling through is working well enough for now.

        Whatever does or doesn’t happen as far as Keen’s policy prescriptions, I do imagine, however, that “The Minsky Project” – a software project for modeling the economic system as a dynamically emergent one, and one that includes money, banks, and debt, ;-) - will make a truly significant contribution to the study of economics, making clear all that Keen has been so painstakingly working to show in his verbal presentations.

        It will make it much harder for policy makers to ignore what Keen can show so well through this software. As he says, it will be clear enough for introductory economics classes to use on the first day, as well as sophisticated enough for graduate students studying economics on an international scale…

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qepFaJW0-9Y

        Linda

        • Lyle

          Yup! So very well spoken.

          I sort of hold to the “desparation is our only hope” concept. And ‘pain precedes change’.

          Another generation will inherit this mess and simply have to make adjustments and fixes where possible.
          Likely to be a damned firey hallway between the door and the window.

          • lgrinaker

            “Likely to be a damned firey hallway between the door and the window.”

            That’s a striking image… and all too apt, I’m guessing…

            Linda

    • axionication1

      I remember listening to this one. He expands a wee bit on the jubilee thing ( I could sense that he was very weary of putting it forward on a prestigious talk show).

      Good on the beeb for allowing this ‘crazy’ talk.
      Keen certainly is on a mission. Best of luck to him!

  • Boz

    Thanks good post Linda!

  • Lyle

    OK :) I can slide with the more lay talks. So I decide to look at the definitions for ‘wonk’ – HA! That was fun.
    Then – went to wiki and looked up ‘neoclassical economics’.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_economics

    Oh good grief! The first paragraph alone makes me dizzy. I read it a couple of times for the high ya know. I suspicion one could or would have to spend an addicted lifetime trying to really understand the full meaning and implications of the first paragraph alone.Another support for the obvious fact I have no PhD letters attached to my name.Bullshit - Piled higher and Deeper – yes. But no Phd. :)I often wonder just why people do this to themselves. :) Something to fill their minds and time with other than sitcoms and Jaws re-runs I suppose. :)Thanks for the posts Linda

    • Lyle

      Well… no spacy spaces provided this go round. Compatibility view – one set of problems. No compatibility view – another set of problems. Such is life.

    • lgrinaker

      I think I shall heed your warning and avoid that particular paragraph/wiki page, ;-).

      Linda

  • axionication1

    Thanks Linda, that was very accessible.

    I have liked the jubilee idea. Probably the only real solution is this reboot of the ledger.

    Now how to convey this as a better bad to the general populace? No chance, in my opinion, of this taking place as a kumbaya moment. Maybe I am just a jaded bastard.

  • Emmazedbend

    Great interview lots of useful points in there; I liked his description of economists as high priests, very apt.

  • Lyle

    Off topic – sorry – but this will be something to enter into some ‘models’.
    NASA – Drought grips the US.
    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78553

  • augustine

    ok ill be the fly in the soup.  He blames todays problems on the economists of today.  Everyone knows you pay down debt when the economy is good which is what Bush should have done.  Instead he got us into wars and refused to tax the public to pay for them.  Congressial Republicans refused.  And they call themselves conservatives. Economists should not be blamed for them not doing this.   Ohh and the future is always rising?  Some economists  thought they got rid of the buisness cycle by injectting stimulus into the economy which has worked since the depression. Kennedy used it and it has worked.  These economist are wrong.  But saying all economists are therefore wrong is too much.  Repealing Glass Stegal was not economists fault also.