Written by John Lounsbury
This talk was presented at the European Parliament to the conference “Peripheral debts: Causes, consequences and solutions: 2 July 2015“. Keen argues that progressive politicians need a complete alternative to Neoliberal economics, which is basically a First Year Economics textbook re-written as a political manifesto.
This is a call for a complete revision of economic policy pursued by both the political left and right today. Keen says that what needs to be recognized in public policy is:
“Stable growth is inconsistent with the manner in which investment is determined in an economy in which debt-financed ownership of capital assets exists, and the extent to which such debt financing can be carried forward is determined.
It follows that the fundamental instability of a capitalist economy is upward.
The tendency to transform doing well into a speculative investment boom is the basic instability in a capitalist economy.”
Source: YouTube
