You’re an IDIOT if you think of economy like this: Top Economist cover art

You’re an IDIOT if you think of economy like this: Top Economist

You’re an IDIOT if you think of economy like this: Top Economist

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Learn 50+ Years of Economics in Only 7 Weeks, by applying here: https://www.stevekeen.com

(Plus get Ravel — the proprietary economic visualization software used in this video — as a bonus if you’re accepted and join.)


Top Economist Steve Keen challenges reasoning by analogy and shows how to analyze the economy from first principles — the way engineers and physicists think. Using double-entry bookkeeping and live Ravel demos, Steve dismantles textbook models like loanable funds, exposes why supply-and-demand curves don’t describe money creation, and builds a dynamic macro model from definitions, not assumptions.


In this eye-opening breakdown, you’ll discover:

✅ First principles vs analogy: why the engineer’s method beats classroom shortcuts

✅ Why the claim that countries are like households is a false analogy for deficits and debt

✅ The monetary system’s real foundations: double-entry bookkeeping, not supply and demand curves

✅ Ravel demo: taxation, reserves, and sectoral balances explained step by step

✅ Why a government surplus equals a private sector deficit, and why that matters

✅ A macro model from strict definitions: employment, wage share, private debt, deficit

✅ Credit’s central role in cycles, and its tight link with unemployment

✅ Why energy belongs inside production functions, grounded in thermodynamics

✅ How ideology keeps bad models alive, and how to replace them


Key insights:

• Engineer it, don’t analogize it: start from accounting identities and conservation laws.

• Sectoral balances: public saving, a surplus, reduces private net financial assets by the same amount.

• Money creation: banks do not use supply and demand curves; they use double-entry to create deposits when they lend.

• Dynamics over equilibrium: definitional dynamics generate cycles; equilibrium is a convenience fantasy.

• Credit drives cycles: credit and unemployment move in opposite directions.

• Energy is fundamental: changes in energy use track changes in global output remarkably closely.



New Book: Money and Macroeconomics from First Principles — for Elon Musk and Other Engineers


Built for engineers, quants, and practical thinkers who want accounting-consistent, physics-aware economics. Kindle available now; print coming soon.


Want to learn 50 years of real economics in 7 weeks?

Apply to Steve’s Seven-Week Rebel Economist Challenge: https://stevekeen.com


Bonus: Ravel access is included for accepted students who join.


What did you think of the sectoral-balances demo and the household vs country analogy? Tell us below.


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Like if first-principles reasoning clarified deficits, money, and credit

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Who is Dr. Steve Keen?


Dr. Steve Keen is a globally recognized economist who replaces textbook abstractions with accounting-consistent and data-driven models. Creator of the Minsky and Ravel software tools, Steve’s work shows how bank money, private debt, and energy shape real-world cycles. If you think like an engineer or physicist and want operational clarity over ideology, this channel is for you.


Learn 50+ Years of Economics in Only 7 Weeks, by applying here: https://www.stevekeen.com


(Plus get Ravel — the software used in this video — as a bonus if you’re accepted and join.)


#FirstPrinciples #SteveKeen #Ravel #SectoralBalances #MoneyCreation #DoubleEntry #Macroeconomics #Deficit #CreditCycles #EnergyEconomics

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