Supporting the economy, paying for healthcare, creating new jobs and preventing a climate apocalypse – these are all vital challenges which inevitably raise the question: how can we pay for it?

By using the bold ideas of modern monetary theory, the radically different approach to using our resources to maximise our potential as a society, Stephanie Kelton argues this question is not the one to ask. Everything that we've been led to believe about deficits and the role of money and government spending in the economy, she says, is wrong, especially the fear that deficits will endanger our long-term prosperity.

Rather than asking how to pay for the crucial improvements our society needs, Kelton encourages us to ask: which deficits actually matter? What is the best way to balance the risk of inflation against the benefits of a society that is more broadly prosperous, safer, cleaner and secure? She explains how we can build a just and prosperous society.

This event is a special keynote in advance of the Is It Time for Universal Basic Income?  conference on Tuesday 13 October 2020. The conference, organised by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath and Bristol Festival of Ideas, brings together leading thinkers, politicians and policymakers and the public to debate universal basic income (UBI) and to explore new approaches to macro-economic policy-making, the prospects for UBI, and the political economy of social and economic change. Find out more and book a place at the conference.

The Deficit Myth is published by John Murray. Buy a copy from our bookseller partner Waterstones.

Festival of Ideas: Stephanie Kelton, The Deficit Myth