The arguments between Keen,

The arguments between Keen, Krugman, Positive Money, etc are all about how to stop bank lending getting out of hand in a boom. Not an issue in which socialists need to take sides, especially as we think none of them are going to work as it's not something that governments can do much about. They might as well try to stop all capitalist firms making profits while the sun shines in a boom. Banking lending expands in a boom because capitalist businesses are prepared to borrow more to expand production.The boom is driven by profitable production (that will eventually lead to overproduction and economic downturn) not by bank lending. How could a government stop that without bursting the bubble prematurely?The issue is what is the nature of banking and banks, and can banks create credit or money out of thin air. The answer is that banks are financial intermediaries borrowing money at one rate of interest and lending it at a higher rate, the difference being their income out of which they must pay their workers and covers their expenses, what's left being their profits. They are not conjuring money out of thin air and  making a profit out of lending it. If they could, they be getting a higher rate of profit than the rest of capitalist business, but they don't. Ok, they are now linked together with the central bank in a single monetary system (Keen's point) but that doesn't make any essential difference to what commercial banks are and can (and cannot) do.