Steve Keen

Steve Keen is a renowned Australian economist, author, and a leading critic of orthodox neoclassical economics. A prominent post-Keynesian thinker, he has built an international reputation for challenging conventional economic theory and advancing alternative approaches to understanding financial instability, debt, and economic crises.

Drawing on the work of Hyman Minsky and Irving Fisher, Keen has developed innovative models of national economies that place private debt, banking, and financial dynamics at the centre of economic analysis. His work emerged in response to the tendency of mainstream economic models to overlook these factors in favour of highly abstract assumptions. His credibility was significantly enhanced by his early warnings of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, making him one of the few economists to accurately foresee the crash. In recognition of his pioneering contributions to debt-deflation modelling and economic forecasting, he was awarded the Revere Award by the Real-World Economics Review.

Keen’s research spans complex systems macroeconomics, financial instability, money creation, climate economics, energy and production, and the mathematical foundations of economic theory. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, and his work has been translated into multiple languages, including Chinese, German, and Russian.

He is the bestselling author of Debunking Economics, a widely acclaimed critique of mainstream economic thought that has become a seminal text for students, academics, and policymakers seeking alternative perspectives. His other notable works include Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? and The New Economics: A Manifesto.

In addition to his academic contributions, Keen created Minsky, the world’s first open-source system dynamics software designed to visually model monetary economic systems. He has previously served as Professor of Economics at Kingston University London and Western Sydney University, and remains a leading voice in debates on economics, finance, and sustainability.