Mike Norman Economics

More bloviating. Every one of the scores of known cases of hyperinflation dating back over 700 years bears witness to a reckless, breakneck campaign of money creation preceding it. Post hoc, propter hoc fallacy.All hyperinflations can be traced to scarcity of real resources for different reasons preceding money creation. Weimar was the result of war reparations. Zimbabwe was the result of fall in production. Venezuela was the result of pegging its currency to the dollar, thereby abandoning...

The Economic Debates Unit of the Latin American Geopolitical Strategic Center (CELAG) released a report on "the economic consequences of the boycott against Venezuela," on Friday, in which it is proved that the "international financial blockade to Venezuela since 2013 is the main responsible for the economic crisis." Economic strangulation. TeleSUR US Blockade on Venezuela Has Cost US$350 Billion: Report

At least the author tried to understand MMT, but he didn't quite make it. In addition, the "argument" is dismissive rather than substantive. Back to the drawing board. Manila Times The Dangerous Appeal Of MMT Ben Kritz, TMT

Why Law Vegas is a leading indicator of housing prices, as well as the US economy. Leisure and hospitality alone is 30 percent of the employment market. The Las Vegas market reacts quickly to changes in the overall economy faster than other areas because it is a barometer on people’s non-essential spending. Obviously someone is going to cut back on taking the family to Las Vegas first before cutting back on other essentials in the home. And since this market is heavily tied to...

Smackdown of the New York Times culture. I don't even link it to it anymore. Why drive traffic in the direction of propaganda (think "anonymous" sources) and journalistic standards that should be considered substandard?Grasping Reality Genius no-longer-quite-so-young whippersnapper Ezra is, I think, massively overly polite here: As Ezra Klein say, Jill ...Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) offers an understanding of sovereign (and non-sovereign) currencies that is applicable to a wide range of economic systems, including capitalist and socialist ones. Irrespective of the personal political preferences of its proponents, the theoretical framework in itself is neutral on the appropriate balance between public sector and private sector activity, or the relative merits of capitalism and socialism. In contrast to neoclassical theory, which starts from...

Which brings us to the common ground that Trump shares with Ocasio-Cortez: Neither one believes in budgets. Central to the Green New Deal is a formulation known as modern monetary theory, which holds that the spending power of a sovereign government is limited only by its productive resources. Trump's fiscal insanity - massive spending along with pleas for lower interest rates - is modern monetary theory in all but name, and his trillion-dollar deficits are inspirational for the authors of...

Some critics of MMT say it will create inflation, like 'money printing' has done in Venezuela, but Ellen Brown explains why this isn't the case. Venezuela’s problems are not the result of the government issuing money and using it to hire people to build infrastructure, provide essential services and expand economic development. If it were, unemployment would not be at 33 percent and climbing. Venezuela has a problem that the US does not have and will never have: it owes massive debts in a...

Ellen Brown says how in the 1930's the U.S. had a public bank called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which rebuilt America after the 1930's crash, but after WW2 the bank was shut down, probably because it competed with the private banks. Ellen Brown also talks about MMT, although she doesn't agree with everything about it. [embedded content] This episode starts with a look at three stories from Latin America. One of corruption in Brazil, one of a coup in Venezuela, and one of a strike...

On the practical side of philosophy of science. Adding nuance to Karl Popper on falsification. Further argument for the view that theories are useful but not "true." This may seem to contradict the realist view that theories are general descriptions of causal relationships. But I don't think that this is what is is implied. Rather, useful theories can be viewed as fitting the data because they reveal underlying structures that are not observed directly but only indirectly.  There is a...