The Economics of What's Possible

Venue: Vancouver Playhouse

SFU Dialogue presents The Economics of What's Possible: An Evening with Stephanie Kelton

What if the stories we tell about money shape not just our economy, but our collective sense of what's possible?

Internationally renowned economist Dr. Stephanie Kelton has reshaped public conversations about government spending, deficits, and economic policy — through her bestselling book The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy, the documentary Finding the Money, and her groundbreaking work on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

In this intimate, fireside-style conversation, Dr. Kelton unpacks the stories we tell about money, debt, scarcity, and government budgets — and how those stories quietly shape the choices we make as a society. She'll explore money as both myth and tool, challenge conventional wisdom about what we can and can't afford, and consider how our economic choices define the kind of society we build.

The conversation moves beyond economics itself, asking: How do the assumptions built into our economic systems shape our social priorities and collective decision-making? And what becomes possible when we start seeing our resources and choices differently?

This Bruce & Lis Welch Community Dialogue is co-presented by SFU Public Square and SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. It is the third offering of When the Map is Useless: Conversations for a World in Transition, a multi-year series that convenes SFU and the broader community to strengthen public sense-making and civic discourse during a time of profound social, political, and ecological change. This initiative is supported in part by the North Family Foundation.