Show Notes
How much longer can the United States rely on the US dollar to dominate the global financial system, and what happens when the cracks finally start to show? In this week's Debunking Economics podcast, Phil Dobbie and Professor Steve Keen travel back to the 1944 Bretton Woods conference to revisit John Maynard Keynes's ultimate lost argument. Steve details how Keynes's visionary proposal for a global clearing union and an international currency—the Bancor—was explicitly designed to penalise both hoarding surplus nations and debt-ridden deficit nations, spreading wealth to developing countries and preventing destructive "beggar-thy-neighbour" tariff wars. By rejecting Keynes's framework in favour of institutionalised US dollar hegemony, the modern global economy has instead trapped itself in a cycle of systemic trade imbalances and ballooning private debt. Tune in to explore why today's aggressive tariff landscapes are exposing the structural fragility of the greenback, whether Alternative Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) baseline assumptions are entirely wrong about trade, and what a chaotic shift away from the world's primary reserve currency means for global stability. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Debunking Economics - the podcast
Fear and greed don’t affect everyone equally. In this episode, Phil Dobbie and Steve Keen explore how debt, financial bubbles, and economic policy can reward those at the top while leaving workers, renters, and households to carry more of the risk. From market crashes and speculative booms to the growing role of private debt, they unpack why inequality persists—and why fear has become an everyday reality for so many. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Phil and Steve unpack the case for a renewed relationship with Europe, from trade and supply chains to freedom of movement and political sovereignty. They debate whether the euro still makes sense in an era of low-cost digital payments, why a shared currency can leave national economies exposed, and what European cooperation should actually look like.
Bond yields are not “warning” governments to behave—they’re exposing a system where central banks and treasuries can backstop the entire market whenever they choose. Steve says the panic around government debt is mostly an economic fairy tale, and the real danger is what happens when policymakers let that fiction dictate spending.
Equilibrium is a fantasy—and this conversation explains why. Phil and teve explore how the belief that markets naturally self-correct has shaped economic policy, contributed to the failure to anticipate the Global Financial Crisis, and continues to distort debates about bond yields, government intervention, debt, and inflation. From Irving Fisher’s original models to today’s financial markets, AI bubbles, and rising government bond yields, Keen shows why capitalism is better understood as an “always moving equilibrium” than as a system that ever truly settles. The discussion also looks ahead to his forthcoming book, How Economists Will Destroy Capitalism, and the urgent consequences of treating elegant economic theories as if they describe the real world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Paul Keating is often sold as the man who modernized Australia - but what if the reforms that made him legendary also helped create the financialized, boom-and-bust economy we live with today? Steve argues the real story is far more unsettling. From the "recession we had to have" to the housing bubble, tariff cuts, bank deregulation, and the superannuation system, he breaks down how Keating's policies reshaped Australia in ways most people still misunderstand. If you think Keating was simply a brilliant reformer, this conversation will challenge that view. Keating was an extraordinary parliamentary orator but a dangerous believer in textbook economics. Discover how the 1987 crash and first home buyers grant helped set up the 1992 recession, and why the push toward finance over manufacturing left Australia weaker, not stronger. He also explains how Keating’s attacks on the GST, the rise of neoliberal thinking inside Labor, and the long fallout from deindustrialization still shape Australian politics today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.