Mike Norman Economics

We could have a melt up.

OMG. Who knew?BloombergMarco Rubio Puts Out a Paper Citing Obscure Left-Wing Economists Ben Holland

Sometimes history appears to be approaching a pivot point, and then the weight swings back and nothing happens. But sometimes it does tip, and times such as these are times of great potential for change. I see hope, for example, in the upsurge of support for Green politics, and the happy convergence of popular political discontent with rising awareness over climate change. This may be a point in time owing to a crisis or a process during which a realignment is worked out. I would bet on...

Remarks by L. Randall Wray at “The Treaty of Versailles at 100: The Consequences of the Peace”, a conference at the Levy Economics Institute, Bard College, May 3, 2019. I’m going to talk about war, not peace, in relation to our work on the Green New Deal—which I argue is the big MEOW—moral equivalent of war—and how we are going to pay for it. So I’m going to focus on Keynes’s 1940 book— How To Pay for the War—the war that followed the Economic Consequences of the Peace.Our analysis (and...

This could potentially lead to Huawei’s destruction,” said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “You can’t underestimate the significance. It’s their most important company and threatening it in this way will generate a massive public response as well as from the Chinese government. The bilateral trade talks were on thin ice and this could derail them entirely.”… Maybe time to consider firms in your portfolio whose earnings are heavily...

Apparently the British Left is “fizzing with ideas for a smarter economy” according to the UK Guardian article (May 12, 2019) – The zeitgeist has shifted. Now the left is fizzing with ideas for a smarter economy – written by Will Hutton. I can’t say I sensed an outbreak of fizz. But in the colloquial language from where I come from, the term fizzer means “Something that promised excitement but instead was a disappointment”, Yes, Hutton’s fizzers include promoting the insights of a...

Matias Vernengo dives into MMT a bit again and further clarifies his position. Naked KeynesianismBernie and AOC are Functional Finance (and Socialists) but not necessarily MMT Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell UniversityOn Karl Polanyi and the labor theory of value

Again, President Trump has escalated the trade war against China (Trump threatens more tariffs and China promises retaliation as trade war intensifies). Again, he is falsely claiming that China is paying for his tariffs (Trump Says China Pays for His Tariffs, He’s wrong)! Again, let me chip in my two cents:  Who are paying for the tariffs? The importers and consumers in America, not the folks in China! Are the manufacturers in China hurt? Yes, but only slightly, as their orders keep...

The recent breakdown in trade talks between the United States and China may in part reflect the two countries’ different approaches to negotiation. Hopefully, this contrast in styles will not cause the talks to fail unnecessarily, given the importance to the global economy of a US-China agreement.... Project SyndicateWhy the US and China See Negotiations Differently Shang-Jin Wei | Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University and a visiting professor at the Australian National...

At some point private debt becomes unsustainable by income. There is nothing in the report to suggest that this point is closely approaching from the household side, however, although there has been some noise about rising corporate debt and its quality. Calculated RiskNY Fed Q1 Report: "Total Household Debt Rises for 19th Straight Quarter, Now Nearly $1 Trillion Above Previous Peak"Bill McBride