Economist Steve Keen; bankrupt banks, nationalise financial system

[cooliekim]

Where does the money to give people to pay off their loans come from?

Who does this money go to?

Who ultimately pays for all of this?

Somehow I feel the taxpayer will be stuck ...again.

[CusterFlux]

@cooliekim Shhhhh ... don't tell anybody ... most money is just made up.

[alipaf2002]

@davidbyrne85 this is hard talk. ......

[DavidByrne85]

What viewers surely want from an unknown academic is a thorough explanation of his ideas, not a police room interrogation. The constant attempts to wrong foot the guy made for an extremely disjointed & poor interview.

[WAKEUPNOWDAMMIT]

14:30ish... "...central banks, the government..." Just a heads up if u guys didnt know, our RBA has no "reserves" and does not at all respresent "Australia". Its private, and designed to generate money for a few shareholders. Look it up.

[lukegranger89]

i would feel safe if steve keen was the prime minister/president of every country in the world

[overseachininadoll]

This economist is no better than all others he himself criticized. If all debts be forgiven, then he's slapping many responsible hard working saver people's faces left and right. It's moral hazards social injustice from other extreme. Why should people work hard and be financially responsible? We just all go racking up creditcards spend as much as possible till we are so heavily indebted so we will be forgiving. ha ha ha..

[pooth27]

PEOPLE For Mathematically Perfected Economy™, Mike Montagne, proposes a very simple solution which would put our economy in the hands of WE the people who actually create money and wealth. No banks, no interest and a Common Monetary Infrastructure. This will be a truly free market where centralised governments would have no role to play in the economy.

[MegaTriumph1]

Put these Bankers in Jail First. Listen to him dosen't want to talk about bankers going to Jail.

[hplaserjet2001]

@MegaTriumph1

Exactly, it's what Keen does't say that leads me to believe he is the controlled opposition.

Bankers, big business and corrupt politicians (gov'ts) have worked together to eradicate the middle class worldwide.

The world bank uses highly paid agents to cheat countries out of trillions through fraudulent loans for infrastructure development they don't need.

These countries have no way to repay and are indebted (enslaved) to the bankers and big business.

[hplaserjet2001]

@MegaTriumph1

Blaming taxpayers and home owners is pathetic. The banking system is corrupt and is run by a small evil group of people who own the planet. The Rothschilds are at the top.

100% of income tax pays debt interest.

Canadian Federal Debt in Billions

$463+ (2009); $550+ (2010); $560+ (2011)

Private banks have privatized the money supply in Canada. They create 95% as debt with interest. Banks create money out of nothing.

[Poppetandthegoddesse]

There is more commonsense in his solution than in gambling everything in a financial system and leaders who have already failed us and really arent here to help us either...

And dont kid yourselves that we live in a 'free market'...Entire governments in Europe are now collapsing under debt so that the old status quo of powerful merchants can stay in control...

Thie awful irony is that the people who engineered this 'crisis' will be even more powerful and wealthy than they were b4.

[yanikv]

You can forgive all personal unsecured debt, school loans of any sort, and medical debt. Such debt will keep economies from rebounding. Real estate is a little bit more tricky, but absolutely cannot be left to the banks and financial industry to control ever again.

[MultiKaamil]

I think she was pre-occupied with certain principles on her mind and tried to stick to it. But when he has got a chance, he delivered his arguments well!

[alphasimian]

Inflation is about the most insignificant concern imaginable right now, so all the inflation Chicken Littles really need to rein it in. What's going on in Europe is a sovereign debt problem (not a deficits/austerity problem) and a demand shortage.

[zegakai]

He can't even fully explain how to implement his solution. He wants central banks to print more money (aka future obligations by the tax payers) to buy up the debt of tax payers who will then be on the hook for those future obligations. It's just a redirected Ponzi scheme that focuses on debtors rather than creditors but the end result is the same. We'll be inflating away the value of our currency (e.g. future earnings) to patch our debts in the present. It's absurd. You can't fight gravity.

[vsktube]

Steve keen is a doomsday conspirer

[danno321s]

If you give money to the debtors, you are sustaining debt against inflated assets which will result in inflation (and you still have the distribution issue to minimize fraud; and you penalize renters even more!). USA inflation is actually closer to 11% (using 1980 formula). There simply has to be large write-offs and bankruptcy for those who cannot raise new capital. What we need is sound money and for the FED to factor in asset prices into its inflation calculation.

[MrRetepyesmar]

it's the jews you know.............ooos I apologize for not being politically correct.

A slip of the tongue.

[leef0flife]

war , global economy meltdown, great depression.

[theMAXILOPEZpsycho]

so I work hard, dont take out any loans, live bellow my means etc Yet someone who spends like mad, takes out a huge student loan, huge mortgage, goes mad spending gets everything for free??? then I also pay as a tax payer to pay out their banks??? talk about punishing productive people

[tosgem]

@theMAXILOPEZpsycho Not quite. The money is printed, not taxpayers money. And secondly, those in debt have to use their money to pay off the debt. So they might come out with only a little debt or credit in their bank balance, whereas YOU would be much further in credit

[clockworkscott]

great interview.

[w4oab]

@clockworkscott Why not ?

[clockworkscott]

@w4oab what do you mean?

[vsktube]

Nationalise banks..... Ensure that the parliament will always have >51% of the stake in all banks ..... and if the banks do not agree to such an arrangement, put limitations on their product portfolio. What does he mean by disrupt banks and nationalise financial system..... should civil servants and council workers start working in banks!!!!

[atsag83]

3 australian property investors watched this!

[seemorerocks]

@atsag83

Or three NZ zombies!

[Antiks72]

He forgot the say hang the bankers and politicians who created this mess so they can't do this again.

[Kostas2788]

Greece is an anomaly because the people where not stupid to take out loans to purchase property like the rest of the developed world (private debt in Greece is much lower). Greece's problem is that their politicians (who are arguably the most corrupt in the world), racked up the government debt to astronomical levels. This is part of the reason as to why Greeks do not pay taxes to their criminal politicians. Besides most taxes are criminal, this does not register in the non-greek

[seemorerocks]

@Kostas2788

I think I am right to say that the Greek govt and Goldman Sachs colluded to "cook the books" so they would qualify for entry to the euro and for loans they couldn't pay back.. The Greek people are in no way responsible for their politicians. Papademos was one of the bakers who facilitated this corrupt process.

[crystaldragonwoman]

ahhh if Only, I am in the whole terrible sub prime mortgage nightmare, if only some one would let me lower the mortgage debt to what property is now worth so I could refinance my home -

[sang3Eta]

You cannot forgive the debt, but you can ease it by extending mortgage terms and fixing a 1% rate for the term. If that's still a no go-er you take the home and rent it back as social housing. When better times return you give the tennent the right to buy. This has all been done before.

[DavidAKZ]

alert alert @ 14:30 the central banks are not part of government !!

[DavidAKZ]

tinyurl . com / 3k3zke The illustrated Road to Serfdom

[shankyxyz]

steve you nailed it. however i am still surprised at your belief in capitalism. as marx said capitalism is inherently based on over-prodcution. and thus liable to criisis. it also probably ties to minsky's debt cycle exposition.

[hawks5999]

One way to get people to pay off debts is to provide the money and announce that all mortgages are converting to non-bankruptable variable 5 year loans. Then announce that the fed funds rate will be set to 18% in 1 year. If you don't pay off the debt then in one year your payment will be on an 18% 5 year loan that can't be bankrupted. Automatic judgement and wage garnishment would mean about a 100% "tax" if you haven't paid off the debt.

[derekrss]

How do you do it? One way would be to give every citizen in the UK 200GBP per week for the few years but with the proviso that it has to be used to pay off any mortgage interest that they owe to a bank. They only get to keep what might be left after that repayment. The gov then reclaims the money by taxing the bank 90% on any mortgage interest they receive. So the banks only make money off non-mortgage loans; the gov doesn't run up any extra debt; and the public reduce their debt.

[whereismybailouttv]

The key point in this? "Normal govt. policy" vs. human nature.

How do you legally make people only use this money to pay off debt?

Do you make them sign a contract?

Does the govt. now get complete access to all of your bank accounts to check where you spend your money?

Are you going to get audited for "questionable" payments?

Will you get fined if you make "bad" payoffs? How much is the fine?

[DavidAKZ]

@whereismybailouttv The are not talking about giving people money ! As asset prices (ie that of houses for example) are debt based, the point is to forgive the debt ! You may not see the connection with this and the fact that so called 'money' is created out of debt. Please Google 'Money as debt' video 47 mins

[whereismybailouttv]

Another question. How do you determine what's "legitimate" debt and what's "irresponsible" debt?



[quigsthevicious]

@whereismybailouttv It doesn't really matter. So much of the "irresponsible debt" has been chopped up, stamped AAA and sold to pension funds that outright canceling of the debt would leave these vulnerable small time investors starving and living under bridges. The real focus isn't which debts get paid, but where the money comes from to do it. Central bank notes instead of increased leverage from private lenders. Of course, if you're a sound money fan, Keen's solution sounds like fraud too.

[whereismybailouttv]

Frankly, considering how right wing much of the U.K. media is (including the BBC), I'm surprised that they put Keen on.

[whereismybailouttv]

They'll hear Peter Schiff rant on about lazy, worthless "socialists" like Obama who want to destroy the country. Yet, do they know who Alan Greenspan is? Do they know what the difference is between going short and long on the market? Probably not. But to them that doesn't matter. All that matters is lashing out at the nearest whipping boy.

Who decides who gets how much money?

Do you create a new govt. agency to control this?

[DavidAKZ]

@whereismybailouttv creation of money and its use for speculation is not in public hands

[tomobrien2004]

@DavidAKZ the central bank of most countries is in public hands, or can be put in public hands with legislation

[DavidAKZ]

@tomobrien2004 you have a look at the board members of the BoE (for example) and tell me on a percentage basis how many are private sector individuals.

[tomobrien2004]

@DavidAKZ that is one country. the point i am making is, if a radical leader comes to power any central bank that is not completely in the hands of the state can be legislated or politically coerced into doing what ever the government wants. it requires a radical movement though - i give you that.

[whereismybailouttv]

Ok, I'll be the first to post here.

In theory, letting people pay off their total debt sounds great. Now, how can you actually do this?

The right wing will scream pull yourself up by your ____ and get on with it.

Many will scream that's "socialism". Yet, many of them have no clue what socialism really is.

Why should lazy people who ran up debt get a bailout?

Not all but many average people have no clue who Minsky was and what Austrian school economics is.

[DavidAKZ]

@whereismybailouttv He didn't articulate this point very well. There needs to be separation between the world of goods and services in which we live and the speculative (casino) activities of the financial services sector. In the US is called the reinstatement of the Glass Steagall Act. At the broadest level a private banking debt crisis driven by derivatives has been backstopped by borrowing from the public sector over the next 3 (?) generations.

[tomobrien2004]

@DavidAKZ he is not talking about investment bank casino speculation on its own, but also standard banks which create housing booms, ala anglo irish bank, allied irish bank, bank of ireland etc did in ireland. none of these were investment banks, and they created a speculative crisis through the creation of credit. this is where the majority of debt has been created internationally.

[DavidAKZ]

@tomobrien2004 The majority of debt are in so called credit default swap products more broadly known as derivatives. Their application to the rise in house prices is a pic nick compared to the macro picture. see the following tinyurl . com / 6a3zxkm

[tomobrien2004]

@DavidAKZ that is simply incorrect in the case of ireland. the debt was purely mortgage lending. as was the sweden case in the 90's. there is a lot of debt created to speculate on the markets with, but in most countries cases this was not the case. i have yet to see the statistics for america or uk, but i dont think hayek is the person to look for in a depression, god forbid.

[DavidAKZ]

@tomobrien2004 @0:40 . Now you have hit the Big TIme !!watch?v=IlkeUu-kn8c