Dr. Steve Keen Profile picture
1st to predict the 2008 financial crisis. Honorary Professor at UCL. Learn 50 Years of Real Economics in my weekly classes for both beginners and experts.
Jun 29 9 tweets 1 min read
1/ After 40+ years in economics, here's my verdict: the discipline is fundamentally broken and needs complete reconstruction.
Here's what real economics should look like. Image 3/ Real economics must embrace complexity, not equilibrium. My Minsky software shows how to model dynamic, evolving systems rather than static mathematical fantasies.
Jun 23 11 tweets 1 min read
Economics Needs a Reality Check -

1/ Much of what's taught in economics classrooms doesn't match real-world evidence. Image 2/ Markets are complex, dynamic, and shaped by innovation, not static equilibrium.
Jun 23 8 tweets 2 min read
1/8 Trade deficits: Buffett warns they bleed national wealth. Mosler claims they boost real prosperity. Who’s right? My analysis settles this economic cage fight. Image 2/8 Buffett’s view: A trade deficit = "selling the farm." You exchange assets (bonds, land) for imports today. Over time, foreigners own your capital. Squanderville parable shows how complacency leads to colonization-by-purchase.
Jun 20 9 tweets 2 min read
(1/9) Finance YouTubers are screaming Japan will crash the global economy because a municipal bond auction failed. Japan's debt is 250% of GDP, and they think this proves that a collapse is coming. Image (2/9) They're confusing city budgets with national budgets—it's like panicking that Samsung will shut down because your local electronics store ran out of Galaxy phones.
Jun 18 11 tweets 1 min read
1/ Economist Paul Ormerod's simulations challenge everything we think we know about competition. Image 2/ He modeled 1,000 consumers with different preferences and firms with varied price/quality offers.
Jun 15 10 tweets 2 min read
1/ Did you learn in economics that firms always face rising marginal costs as they produce more? The real world tells a different story. Image 2/ Empirical research shows most firms operate with constant or even falling marginal costs as output increases. Efficiency often rises as they approach capacity.
Jun 13 9 tweets 2 min read
(1/9) Netflix's Lucifer perfectly explains why economists ignore reality.

When the devil himself tells people who he is, they refuse to believe it.

The same thing happens when banks reveal how money really works; economists just pretend they never heard it. Image (2/9) Your bank lied to you. They don't take your savings and lend them out. When you get a loan, they literally create new money out of thin air by typing numbers on a computer. Your deposit comes from someone else's loan, not the other way around.
Jun 11 9 tweets 2 min read
1 / Why deficit reduction could CRASH the economy - insights on Trump/Musk economic policies that conventional economists won't tell you. Government debt is NOT like household debt.

2/ The administration aims to cut $1 trillion in spending and eventually eliminate the deficit. But they fundamentally misunderstand how money works in our economy. 2/ The administration aims to cut $1 trillion in spending and eventually eliminate the deficit. But they fundamentally misunderstand how money works in our economy.
Jun 9 10 tweets 2 min read
Donald Trump's economic adviser, Steve Moran, just figured out why American factories are dying, but he missed the real villain who destroyed US manufacturing decades ago. Image (2/9) Every global trade needs dollars first. When China buys from Australia, they convert to dollars, then buy Australian goods. This artificial demand makes dollars overvalued, killing US manufacturing competitiveness.
Jun 3 8 tweets 2 min read
"Why Economists Are Dead Wrong About Climate Change"

(And What You’re Not Being Told)

Imagine this:

Your doctor says you have a 5% chance of a heart attack.
Another doctor says, “You’ll be dead in 5 years.”

Who do you trust?

That’s economists vs. scientists on climate change.

Let’s unpack why.Image (2/8) Economists say:
“3°C warming = 3% GDP loss by 2100. No big deal!”
But here’s the catch:
They assume climate change is like a slow leak in a tire.
Scientists say it’s a grenade with the pin pulled.
May 26 11 tweets 2 min read
1/ #Trump wants to eliminate America's #trade deficits, but Larry Summers and Warren Mosler from MMT say he's wrong because "imports are benefits and exports are costs." Image 2/ They're both missing the monetary reality. When America exports, it creates new money in the domestic banking system. When it imports, it destroys money.
May 25 11 tweets 2 min read
#Economists Have Ignored the ONE Thing That Powers Civilization and that's why - 99% of #economic models FAIL to predict crises! (1/9) Most economists act like energy is just a footnote. @Elon Musk talks about tech, but forgets energy powers every job, every product, every service. That’s why their predictions fail-because they ignore the real driver of economies.
May 23 11 tweets 3 min read
1/10 @ElonMusk believes government spending is like personal spending: too much leads to bankruptcy.

But what if the richest man in the world fundamentally misunderstands how government finances work? Image @elonmusk @Tesla @SpaceX @grok 2/10 "A country is no different from an individual in that if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt and so can a country." - @Elonmusk
May 7 8 tweets 2 min read
Don't study economics at university. What they teach is empirically false garbage.

In just 9 simple points, let me explain why... and what to study instead. Image (1) Textbooks claim firms face "rising marginal costs" (making more = higher costs per unit). But 89% of real companies have flat or FALLING costs as they scale up production.

(2) Alan Blinder (Princeton economist) surveyed hundreds of businesses and found this above fact. Yet HE STILL teaches this false model in his textbooks 15 years later!

Absolute Guff.
Aug 20, 2024 9 tweets 2 min read
Think of the economy like a game of Monopoly. In Monopoly, the bank never runs out of money. It creates money out of thin air. Now, imagine if the players believed the bank will run out of money... Image They'd make irrational decisions, hoarding cash, and the game would grind to a halt. This is exactly how mainstream economists treat government deficits. They believe the government, like a household, will run out of money.
Aug 13, 2024 8 tweets 2 min read
Imagine your household budget. You can't spend more than you earn without going into debt, right?

Now, imagine if you could create money out of thin air... Image That's the reality for governments with fiat currency.

Mainstream economists claim that government deficits are bad because they believe the government borrows from the private sector, increasing future tax burdens.
Jul 29, 2024 7 tweets 2 min read
Imagine a seesaw.

On one side, you have the wealthy, on the other, the working class.

Now, picture the Federal Reserve piling weights on the wealthy side.

This is how Quantitative easing (QE) actually works... Image Quantitative easing (QE) was supposed to stabilize the economy. Instead, it inflated asset prices, benefiting those who already own most of the assets – the rich. The working class? They got crumbs.
Oct 11, 2021 7 tweets 7 min read
@KaiGehring1 @TOClimates @MaxCRoser Sorry Kai. I’m just beyond frustrated by the tendency of economists to ignore the impossibility of production without energy, and their ignorance of just how close we are to exhausting the planet’s stocks of vital inputs to production. To flesh out why: /1 @KaiGehring1 @TOClimates @MaxCRoser (A) Energy. The Cobb Douglas Production Function dominates economic modelling now: L&K in, Y out; no role for energy. When it's included (eg Engström & Gars 2016) it's a 3rd factor in the CDPF with an exponent based on income shares of 0.03. That means, for example, that /2 ImageImage