Mike Norman Economics

Most of the financial "professionals" writing on (against) MMT are clueless about both MMT and also the basics of finance in institutional arrangments. They think that the world is still on the gold standard, for example, likely because they strongly believe that it ought to be. But beyond that, also clueless about how the accounting works at the macro level. A very few do understand MMT, however. Paul McCulley of Pimco and James Montier of GMO, for example. Here is another voice to...

It appears that the Brexit process in Britain will now stall. My understanding of the Referendum was the majority of British people who voted wanted to leave the EU and that the politicians from all sides of politics unambiguously stated they would honour the outcome, whichever way the vote fell. That is what democracies are about. A lot of people are disappointed by vote outcomes. They have to grin and bear it. But in the case of the Brexit vote, the Remainers have never accepted the...

Some books on philosophy of economics.The Enlightened EconomistEconomics and philosophy Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation

Abba Lerner quote.Lars P. Syll’s BlogFunctional​ finance — how to cope with inflationLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

I  (Tom Hickey) recommend reading this paper now that "socialism" is the new buzz word. You may recall Professor Wolff from The Poverty of Liberalism, In Defense of Anarchy, and A Critique of Pure Tolerance (with Herbert Marcuse and Barrington Moore, Jr.), which were popular at the time of the "countercultural revolution" in the Sixties and Seventies. He also published scholarly works on Emmanuel Kant and Karl Marx. He blogs at The Philosopher's Stone, which I follow and occasionally offer...

Peter Dorman reflects broadly on what economics is about. Worth considering, although it is only tangentially relevant to MMT as a school of monetary economics. But it does bring up key questions that extend from philosophy to sociology, anthropology, history, and political science, as well as economics. Economies are embedded in societies as their material provisioning mechanism. In doing economics the way it is usually done, it is easy to loose a lot of this, especially in focusing on...

On the historical meanings of "socialism."See my comment there. The Philosopher's StoneA WORD OF CLARIFICATION Robert Paul Wolff | Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The main lesson I want to draw from this post is (excluding being autarkic/poor or being in a monetary union):  If a country wants to maintain a fixed exchange rate, the country must accumulate a lot of foreign reserves to be sovereign (or maybe some capital controls?)  If a country wants to have floating exchange rates, it must convince its trading partners (or its trading partners’ trading partners) to hold its national currency as foreign reserves. losinterestMonetary Sovereignty...

See my comment there.Lars P. Syll’s BlogDoes MMT — really — ignore expectations?Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Our brains are neuroplastic and change according to the environment. Poor children are often negatively affected by poverty which makes its difficult for them to learn or do well at school. A viscous circle can set up where these children will grow up into adults who continue to under achieve and live in poverty, and so their children will under achieve as well.Some of these people live in the underclass and can be an enormous burden on society as many get involved in crime, drugs, and...