"Unlearning Economics": Jon Erickson, Josh Farley, Steve Keen, and Kate Raworth

Reality Roundtable #03
August 13th, 2023

(Conversation Recorded on July 18th, 2023)  

Show Summary

On this Reality Roundtable, Nate is joined by Jon Erickson, Josh Farley, Steve Keen, and Kate Raworth - all of whom are leading thinkers and educators in the field of heterodox economics. In this lively discussion, each guest begins by sharing one fundamental aspect of what conventional economics gets wrong and how it could be improved in our education system. What basic assumptions about humans have led to a misunderstanding of the average person’s decision making? What areas has economics turned a blindspot to as the foundation of our economic systems? Who is finding the models and systems that economists have created useful - and how does economics as a discipline need to change in the face of a lower energy future? In short, what we teach our 18-22 year olds around the world matters - a great deal.

About Jon Erickson

Jon Erickson is the David Blittersdorf Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy at the University of Vermont. He has published widely on energy and climate change policy, land conservation, watershed planning, environmental public health, and the theory and practice of ecological economics. He advised presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on economics and energy issues.

About Josh Farley

Joshua Farley is an ecological economist and Professor in Community Development & Applied Economics and Public Administration at the University of Vermont. He is the President of the International Society for Ecological Economics.

About Steve Keen

Steve Keen is an economist, author of Debunking Economics and The New Economics: A Manifesto. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience, and Security at University College in London.

About Kate Raworth

Kate Raworth describes herself as a renegade economist focused on making economics fit for 21st century realities. She is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries, and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, based on her best-selling book Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist. Kate is a Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. She is a member of the Club of Rome and currently serves on the World Health Organisation Council on the Economics of Health for All.

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Show Notes & Links to Learn More:

00:00 - Jonathan Erickson works, info, & TGS Episode. Josh Farley works, info, & TGS Episode 1 + 2. Steve Keen works, info, slides used & TGS Episode. Kate Raworth works, info, & TGS Episode.

02:30 - 235 million university students globally

04:53 - Paul Samuelson

07:03 - George E.P. Box

08:39 - Homo economicus

10:20 - Marginal Benefit equals Marginal Costs

10:56 - Robert Frank, Economic Naturalism

11:54 - Normalcy Bias, Asymmetric Insight, Hindsight Bias

13:02 - How Well Do Economists Forecasts Recessions | IMF

14:36 - Teaching that humans are inherently selfish increases selfish behavior

15:17 - Thorstein Veblen

16:07 - Evolution is driven by both competition and cooperation

16:36 - Is It Good to Cooperate? | Testing the Theory of Morality-as-Cooperation in 60 Societies

17:25 - Charles Darwin discourse with economists

19:09 - E.O. Wilson, Consilience

21:02 - Demand Curve, Hicksian-compensated demand curve, Market demand curve

21:21 - Sonnenschein, Shafer - The market demand curve can be represented by any polynomial

22:22 - Max Planck

22:56 - Scientology

24:07 - William Nordhaus, Nobel Prize Paper

25:32 - Correlation between energy and economic growth

26:38 - Leontief Model

26:55 - Neoclassical Economics

27:52 - Bachmann et al. 2022 Paper

29:20 - Cobb-Douglas Production Function

33:10 - Data on energy and GDP correlation globally and by country

33:30 - Data being referenced by Keen on energy and GDP

36:20 - Galileo and Kepler correspondence

37:10 - Work potential in a barrel of oil in Kilowatt hours

37:50 - Annual change in private debt against change in unemployment correlation

38:42 - Schelling

29:10 - Every product is supported by oil

46:09 - Optimal Utility Maximization 

48:20 - Record food profits 2022

48:31 - Betting on the future of food: A quantitative model of food prices 

49:31 - 2 year time lag between oil investment and production, 1 year for food

50:45 - Small increase in the price of essential resources causes all prices to skyrocket

51:40 - Ecological impacts of economic activities

52:49 - In essential resources you make more money by producing less

53:14 - Enron collusion to withdraw power from the California system, skyrocketing prices

53:38 - Brazil electric crisis managed by rationing

55:38 - Adam Smith

56:39 - Universal Basic Income

57:24 - Universal Healthcare

57:31 - 20% of US GDP goes to healthcare

57:44 - 6.7% of US income goes to food for home consumption

58:32 - Agriculture is the biggest threat to global ecosystems

1:02:33 - Monsanto and GMO seed rights of use restrictions

1:02:45 - Publicly developed innovation brings more return on investment than privately developed

1:04:03 - Understanding the Private-Public Divide

1:04:11 - Payback Period

1:04:20 - Dynamic Economic Systems: A Post Keynesian Approach - John Blatt

1:04:59 - Ecocore.org

1:05:09 - Adam Hardy

1:06:58 - The Inefficiency and Unfairness of Tradeable CO2 Permits

1:07:15 - Henry Shue

1:07:29 - Pareto-optimality

1:08:04 - Law Diminishing Marginal Returns

1:10:09 - Alan Kirman: The Intrinsic Limits of Modern Economic Theory: The Emperor has No Clothes 

1:18:50 - Diversity in the field of economics

1:21:41 - Elinor Ostrom - Core Design Principles

1:23:29 - Physiocrats

1:31:41 - International Baccalaureate

1:32:15 - Ecological Economics

1:33:58 - Education as an inoculation of consumers

1:34:13 - Next Systems Reader

1:36:36 - Minskey on SourceForge

1:37:04 - Leadership for the Ecozoic 

1:38:30 - Doughnut Economics

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Jean-Marc Jancovici: "Our Global Energy Predicament"

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Doomberg: "Our Fragile Energy Economy"