From Alpha To Omega

Today’s guest, Yanis Varoufakis, is a Greek Political Economist and Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens, and an expert in game-theory. We discuss the flawed design of the Euro, Francois Mitterand and Jacques Delors, the ECB and the Germans, the rise of a Greek Nazi Party and the spectre of Kosovo and Euro Waste-Lands.

Yanis is a leading heterodox economist, the author of ‘The Global Minotaur - America, The True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy’, and prolifically pens his thoughts on his blog:

http://YanisVaroufakis.eu.

You can check out his bibliography here:

http://www.amazon.com/Yanis-Varoufakis/e/B000APKJ4M/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1349010527&sr=8-1

Enjoy!

This weeks guest is Doug Lain. Doug is a fiction writer, blogger, pop philosopher and political radical. He is also the host of the most excellent ‘Dietsoap’ podcast. We talk of philosophy and Hegel, reality tunnels and ideology, Slavoj Zizek and the surreal, Winnie the Pooh and the Labyrinth. Doug’s novel ‘Billy Moon: 1968’ is due out from Tor Books in 2013. He also has a new monthly podcast coming out in September with Derick C. Varn called ‘Pop The Left’ where they hope to give a critical analysis of the left, from a leftists perspective. If you know what's good for you, you should check out the Dietsoap podcast and Doug's writing on his interweb site:

www.douglaslain.com

You can also find his books for purchase here:

http://www.amazon.com/Douglas-Lain/e/B004Z9W0QO/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1347673703&sr=8-1

Enjoy!

On this weeks show, we speak to the world reknowned economist Steve Keen, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney. Steve was one of the few economists in the world to predict the current crisis in detail, years before it happened. He did it so well, in fact, that he won the award for being the economist who first and most accurately warned the world of the coming global financial crisis. Steve considers most economists and the standard neoclassical synthesis as deluded, and wrote the brilliant ‘Debunking Economics’, where he lays it all out in gorey detail. We speak of debt jubilees and speculation, Minsky & Mark, Chaos Theory and Anarchy, Peak Oil and the likely coming collapse of human population.

You can check out his brilliant blog here: http://debtdeflation.com/blogs

Steve has also just launched a subscription based service where you can get first dibs at his latest research and you can join in on subscriber-only discussions on the web: http://debunkingeconomics.com/

Here is where you can purchase a copy of 'Debunking Economics':

http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-Economics-Revised-Expanded-Dethroned/dp/1848139926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346433606&sr=8-1&keywords=debunking+economics

Enjoy!

This week we talk to ‘Heiko Khoo’’. Heiko is a Marxist who has been a speaker at London’s Speakers corner since 1986. He has a specialist interest in the Marxist analysis and critique of China and former soviet type regimes. He frequently contributes to the online journal, karlmarx.net. Heiko recently began a walking tour company www.Marxwalks.com that runs weekly walking tours in London on the life and ideas of Karl Marx. Our conversation will meander across a number of issues, from Speakers Corner, to political activism in East Berlin, from Trotsky to Old Labour, and from the Occupy Movement to the extent of state capitalism and state communism in China. It's refreshing to hear from a real life revolutionary! Enjoy!

We are joined by Professor L. Randall Wray this week, an economist and expert in Modern Monetary Theory. Prof. Wray also blogs over at 'New Economic Perspectives', which tries it's best, amongst other things, to dispel the myths surrounding our monetary system. We discuss the origins of money, Chartalism, the German Colonies and Stone money, the nature of government debt, the problems with the euro, commodity price speculation, Bill Clinton's budget surpluses, and regime change in the US.

Prof. Wray has a new book coming out next month. You can find it on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Money-Theory-Macroeconomics-Sovereign/dp/0230368891/ref=la_B001HP7OPG_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344180162&sr=1-1

You can check out his postings on the most excellent blog:

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/

Over and Ooot!

This weeks guest is Philip Pilkington, a prolific economic contributor to the excellent ‘Naked Capitalism’ blog. 'Naked Capitalism' is one of the most visited economics blog on the web, featuring some of the top Political Economy bloggers on the planet. The show is loosely based around a series Philip wrote for the blog on Monetarism - the economic theories of Milton Friedman. We cover such rocky territory as the intellectual battles between the Keynesians and Monetarists, the Austrian School of Economics and Political Propaganda, Maggie Thatcher and class war, Union Busting and Military Coups, Finance vs Industry, and the return of the Gold Standard.
That's all folks!?!#@**&^!!

You can find Philips writing here and here:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/

This weeks episode features a seminal Noam Chomsky lecture from 1970 entitled ‘Government In The Future’. Noam Chomsky is quite simply the greatest living intellectual, and a wonderful human being. In this lecture, he gives a historical and philosophical look at the four great governmental structures: classic liberalism, libertarian socialism, state capitalism and state socialism. His analysis, in particular of our system - state capitalism - is stark and accurate. He gives a novel and highly functional description of the role of the cold war, and discusses the nature of power and democratic governance. This weeks show is hopefully one of the first in a line of overtly political shows

Enjoy!

This week we are joined by the masked crusader, Glaucus, who runs the town and city planning blog 'Planning Down'. Glaucus, city planner by day, and anonymous planning theorist by night, introduces us to the ideas behind his cross-disciplinary approach to planning the towns and cities of the future. We talk of cities as metabolic organisms, the industrial revolution, Jevon's paradox, feedback loops, consumerism, and Obama’s national defense authorisation act and indefinite detention without trial.

You can check out Glacus's highly engaging blog here:

https://planningdown.wordpress.com/

If you are interested in reading more about any of the topics in today's show, you can check out the blog's bibliography here:

https://planningdown.wordpress.com/influencesfurther-reading/

I love it when a plan comes together....

Colette O'Neill, the creative genius behind the Bealtaine Cottage permaculture small-holding in the west of Ireland and the 'A Life In The Country' blog, is this weeks guest. We chat about her love of permaculture, how she decided to give up her career as a teacher in London and return to Ireland to turn an old bachelors cottage and 3-acres of poor land in the wilds of County Roscommon into an oasis of abundance. We hear of forest gardens, stylish wooden verandas, her pantry, ancient burial sites, fairy rings, living outside the monetary system, the cuckoo, and space travel.

You can check out her blog here:

http://permaculturecottage.wordpress.com/

If her blog makes you jealous, then her youtube channel might tip you over the edge:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BealtaineCottage/videos

Go raibh míle maith agat....

I popped over to the PositiveMoney.org HQ this week, to talk to Ben Dyson about their monetary reform campaign. They are seeking to wrest the power of money creation away from the banks, and put it under democratic control - no more of that debt based money please! We talk about the origins of our current monetary system, the pathetic understanding of money by mainstream economists, and the benefits to the common people of monetary and banking reform. We also discuss the heterodox economics of Modern Monetary Theory(MMT), and I rant a little on this topic at the end of the show.

You can check out more about positive money here:

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/

And you can buy their book explaining how the monetary system in the UK works here:

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/where-does-money-come-from-book/

Ben also features in the new feature length documentary about the issue called '97% Owned'(well worth watching):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcGh1Dex4Yo

I have also managed to get the show loaded to the iTunes store, so people can download it from there. Here is link:

http://snipurl.com/fromalpha2omega

For those of you interested in finding out more about Modern Monetary Theory(MMT), you should check out this blog, where you can find articles by leading experts in the field like Randy Wray, and Warren Mosler:

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/

Laters...