What if I can't pay my mortgage? Steve Keen on the Coronavirus & Economic Crisis with Aaron Wissner

There's a whole load of people on twitter, including some economists, who think we are going over the top about Covid-19. They even post articles by some top virologists who say it's no worst than common flu.

They are concerned about the effect the Lockdown will have on the economy, but I think Steve Keen is right: total isolation and the National Guard or the Post Office delivering food to people's houses, and with testing kits, it should all be over in 8 weeks causing minimum harm to the economy.

What if I can't pay my mortgage? How can I pay my rent?  Will I get fired?  Can I file for unemployment?  What bills should I pay?  What bills should I delay?  

The world's top economist, Dr Steve Keen, sits down with Aaron Wissner of Local Future to discuss what people should do, and how people should think about money, during the coronavirus crisis.

Dr Keen is one of about a dozen people in the world who accurately predicted the 2008 debt bubble collapse and the resulting collapse of the housing markets, the stock markets, and the unemployment to follow; and the only one to be able to describe the reasoning mathematically.

This was possible due to his understanding of money, debt, credit and mathematics as it plays a role in the economy.

This "school" of economic thought is referred to as "post-Keynesian" school, as distinct and separate from "mainstream" economics, which currently the globally dominant (and structurally flawed) school of economic thought.

Post-Keynesian is much more similar to a "hydraulic macroeconomic" model.  Dr Keen generally references the work of John Maynard Keynes, Irving Fisher, Joseph Schumpeter, and Hyman Minsky as influences in helping him to understand money and economics in these terms.  (Perhaps along with writings from John Kenneth Galbraith and Michael Hudson.)

During the conversation, the two discuss what to pay first; the reasons to support a global payment strike on mortgage, rent, taxes and corporate bills; how to prioritize food over all else; methods of food distribution to minimize/eliminate the possibility of contamination; the role of the government in the creation of money; whether gold is or is not money; whether hyperinflation might be at hand (no); and more.