Mike Norman Economics

Thread by @stf18 at threadreaderapp.com1. Quick(?) MMT 101 lesson:From the very beginning in the 1990s, MMT has NEVER argued that 'printing money' was necessary. Anyone saying MMT = "print money," even if they (correctly) incorporate an inflation constraint, is getting MMT dead wrong.2. The argument from the earliest days--@wbmosler 's "Soft Currency Economics," Wray's "Understanding Modern Money," or @StephanieKelton 's "Can Taxes & Bonds Finance Govt Spending?"--the MMT argument is...

"Pareidolia" refers to the common human practice of looking at random outcomes but trying to impose patterns on them. For example, we all know in the logical part of our brain that there are a roughly a kajillion different variables in the world, and so if we look through the possibilities, we will will have a 100% chance of finding some variables that are highly correlated with each other. These correlations will be a matter of pure chance, and they carry no meaning. But when my own brain,...

Proposed Rulemaking out last month from the OCC, its taken like a year to come up with this proposal in response to the bank reform Act passed last year.  Nothing like a sense of urgency... Agencies Seek Comments on Revisions to the Supplementary Leverage Ratio as Required by Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act https://t.co/MVezVBn0L2 — OCC (@USOCC) April 19, 2019 Looks like weak tea anyway.Probably not going to help much towards achieving legal mandate for...

I got this from Magpie's blog, which is by Randy Wray and is very good. It's old, from 2012, so you are probably all familiar with it, but I still thought it was worth posting.Randy says how the free market equilibrium theory, the invisible hand, is a myth. Economists did manage to work out a formula for it after 80 years of trying, but it is based on everything being perfect, like being perfectly informed, eg, advertisements are completely honest, and there is no market manipulation. Some...

The actress and activist writes about how she believes recently indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being scapegoated for Trump’s election win. Superbly written and very concise. So you say Julian Assange interfered with U.S. elections? Well, then let me tell you the truth: This whole saga of “foreign intervention” is fundamentally absurd, and mainstream opinion painfully misguided. No one interfered with the right of voters to inform themselves freely, choose their own...

Its a good idea to pay attention to the Methodology one is using... the Methodology itself may not be properly suited to the discipline one is trying to master...Backgrounder on one 'Dialectic Method' here. Dialectic or dialectics (Greek: διαλεκτική, dialektikḗ; related to dialogue), also known as the dialectical method, is at base a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments. Dialectic...

Mag[ie continues to fisk Paul Mason on Marxism and MMT. Magpie's Asymmetric WarfareGetting all Tied Up (4) Magpie

When I first came across the term "cultural marxism" I thought, what a load of nonsense! There it's no marxism in identity politics, so it's just a smear.BTW, Peter Jordon suffers from chronic depression and is on two different antidepressants. In a video I watched, he described how he has suffered terribly in the past. On that level I feel sorry for him. But I'm surprised it hasn't given him more empathy. [embedded content]

The trade tension between the United States and China looks set to intensify soon, as the latter country is taking steps to respond to the American ban on doing business with Huawei. Bloomberg reports that China has put preparations in place to restrict exports of rare earth minerals to the US, while also setting up its own “unreliable entities” blacklist for unfavorable foreign companies. At the same time, Japan’s SoftBank has announced it’ll be building its 5G network with equipment from...

Trump hits Mexico, threatening the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.