Mike Norman Economics

Our study aims to help draw together two strands of literature. As the World Inequality Report recently showed, most advanced nations have seen an increase in inequality over the past generation. Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence points to an increase in market power, both in terms of rising market concentration and increasing markups. A burgeoning literature suggests that superstar firms are capturing increasingly high market shares, allowing them to use their market position to earn...

The period of low demand and low interest rates during the Great Recession has prompted economists to consider new policies to stabilise the business cycle. The ‘zero lower bound’ on nominal interest rates prevented the use of interest rate reductions to stimulate consumption and investment in many developed economies. Researchers have proposed an alternative policy tool, ‘unconventional’ fiscal policy. This is a commitment to raise consumption taxes in the future (Feldstein 2002, Hall...

Venezuela is in the news. Two big news stories:Trump recognizes Venezuela's opposition leader as its legitimate president. Venezuela breaks diplomatic relations with US. Curious about the fast development of these stories, I decided to research into the matter. Not surprisingly, the U.S. has, again, been meddling behind the scene. Let me share some interesting videos ... econintersectWhat Is Really Going on in Venezuela?Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat, Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East...

MMT is, in its theory and expression, nothing more than an over-glorified central bank inspired overtake of the entire global economy as to reset it into a Marxist/Socialist/Communist inspired construct of central planning delegation, where winners and losers of business and more will be picked via the delegation of money printed ex nihlo to where some central authority will see fit. Or said differently: an utter and complete con job to gain control of all mechanics of enterprise, where...

Tom Holland is a geologist by training and journalist by profession. Although he has written on business for 25 years, he displays little knowledge of finance, economics or MMT in this article. Why do people that are not qualified to speak on an important subject get a platform to criticize for reasons that are patently wrong. In the first place, the author doesn't realize that China is not sovereign in its currency since it pegs the renminbi to the dollar. (The Chinese currency is the...

L. Randall Wray recently presented in Berlin at an event marking the release of the German translation of his book Understanding Modern Money. The presentation (in English) may be seen below, including responses by Doris Neuberger and Dirk Ehnts. Wray begins with a brief history of the development of MMT and his role in that development. He then lays out his version of the central points that constitute MMT (at 27:24) And for those who have been following the reactions in popular...

It's short, but it's only a primer. Venezuela didn't have a strong democracy until Hugo Chavez came along. [embedded content] Over and over again US media outlets make the claim that Venezuela was the "jewel of Latin America" before Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998 and that his election marked the country's downfall. In part 1 of this Venezuela primer, on the 20th anniversary of Chavez first taking office on February 2, 1999, we look at what led up to his election

Putin Is Soft. He Should Learn to Scare the West Like Khrushchev Did PCR has always said that Putin is too polite and this increases the risk of WW3. If Putin was more aggressive, says PCR, the West would back down. I'm not so sure, maybe Putin knows what he is doing as the West is crazy and run by criminals.  Apparently, Putin was very upset about Gaddafi's brutal death and vowed never to let it happen to Assad.  Putin might well just be a brilliant statesmen, but I've always detected an...

Nice find.The Case for Concerted ActionJason Hickel — A Letter To Steven Pinker (And Bill Gates For That Matter) About Global PovertyV. Ramanan

Russia gets the blame again. The ruling elite are like children - except they're so dangerous. Everything gets blamed on the Russians. - [embedded content] Who is at fault for Yellow Vest protests raging in France since November? For President Emmanuel Macron it's not actual economic problems or his own decisions, but the right, the left, social media and, of course, 'Russes'.