Guest Lecturer – Professor Steve Keen – Friday, September 7

Guest Lecturer: Steve Keen – Friday, September 7th

We are hosting, in conjunction with MADE and RSS, Professor Steve Keen, who will give a presentation on Friday the 7th of September:

Steve Keen is Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney and author of Debunking Economics.

A long-time critic of neoclassical economics, Professor Keen includes in his economic modelling relevant real world data, and so was able to give fore-warning of the current global financial crisis.

“In order to solve the Global Financial Crisis, economists must start including money, banks and debt into their modelling.”

At the lecture Professor Keen will discuss the failures of monetary economics, talk about why the current economic situation cannot be solved with current methods, and present alternative economic models that reflect the real world, including a look at the work of Hyman Minsky.

“We currently have a dysfunctional financial system that has imposed unconscionable debt burdens upon some, and created enormous Ponzi-based wealth for others.”

He will also take a brief look at issues that affect New Zealand’s economic well-being, including our housing market, private debt levels and foreign asset ownership.

Date: Friday, September 7th
Time: 6pm
Location: OGGB4 (Lecture Theatre 4), Level 0, Business School

Look forward to seeing you there.

Interest: What Is It And Why It Should Interest Us

Weekly Meeting – Interest: What Is It And Why It Should Interest Us

More capital means more production.

Greater production takes more time.

Bringing time into the equation means talking about interest—but where do interest payments come from?

From whence comes the “surplus value” that makes interest payments possible.

Where, in short, does interest come from?

From capital? From productivity?

As a reward from abstinence? As a theft by the capitalist class from workers? As an immoral imposition on borrowers by lenders?

How is interest earned—or is it?

Where does “the natural rate of interest” come from—or is there one?
And what role did interest play in building the world we live in today?

Starting with Aristotle and the monks of the Middle Ages, we look at how the subject of interest has been used and abused by thinkers throughout history—and why a correct understanding of interest has such a powerful bearing on both why economies grow, and how they crash.

Date: Monday, August 13
Time: 6pm
Location: Room 215, Level 2, Business School Building

See you there.