Professor Steve Keen is an Australian economist, author and influential critic of neoclassical economics, renowned for challenging conventional thinking around private debt, banking and financial instability. A prominent Post-Keynesian economist, Steve has developed economic models inspired by Hyman Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis and Irving Fisher's work on debt deflation, placing credit and private debt at the centre of macroeconomic analysis. He gained international recognition for publicly warning of the conditions that preceded the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, with subsequent academic analysis identifying him among a small group of economists whose warnings met specific criteria for anticipating the crisis.
Before entering academia, Steve developed an unusually varied professional background, working as a school teacher, overseas aid education officer, conference organiser, editor, computer programmer, journalist and government adviser. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney in 1974, followed by a Bachelor of Laws in 1976 and a Diploma of Education from Sydney Teachers College. Steve later completed a Master of Commerce in Economics and Economic History at the University of New South Wales before earning his PhD in Economics there in 1997. His academic career subsequently included senior positions at the University of Western Sydney and Kingston University.
Steve's international reputation has been built upon his research into financial instability, complex systems macroeconomics, money creation and the economic significance of private debt. His work has also expanded into climate economics, energy and production and the mathematical foundations of economic theory. His warnings ahead of the Global Financial Crisis drew on mathematical modelling influenced by Minsky's work, with Steve arguing that conventional models failed to adequately incorporate money and debt. In 2010, he received the Revere Award for Economics after a poll of more than 2,500 Real-World Economics Review subscribers placed him first among economists recognised for their public warnings of the coming crisis.
Alongside more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, Steve is the author of several influential books. His best-known work, Debunking Economics, challenges fundamental assumptions within neoclassical economics, while his other publications include Economics: Taking the Con Out of Economics, Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? and The New Economics: A Manifesto. Steve is also an Honorary Professor at University College London and co-hosts the Debunking Economics podcast with Phil Dobbie. A compelling economics speaker, he brings decades of research and a willingness to question established thinking to discussions surrounding debt, financial crises, economic modelling and the future of the global economy.
