Mike Norman Economics

This morning I responded to leading Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) proponent Stephanie Kelton's Huffington Post op-ed, "How We Can Pay for a Green New Deal," with a tweet observing that "MMT often boils down to nothing more than an especially naïve sort of Keynesianism: assume an unlimited excess supply of every resource save money balances, and, voila! monetary expansion can costlessly finance all the projects we like!" My comparison of basic MMT arguments with plain-vanilla Keynesianism is...

It seems now very opportune that I recently posted three times on my blog my views on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), an increasingly attractive theory for the left to justify government spending to meet the ‘needs of the many’. For just this week, left Democrats in the US Congress, led by the rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), a member of Democratic Socialists of America, launched what they call the Green New Deal (GND), an alternative programme for a future US government to adopt...

To reiterate, we didn’t need people’s money to fund the war effort. And in case you don’t believe me, take the word of someone who was there. Beardsley Ruml, Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, published a piece in American Affairs in 1946 entitled “Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete.” Guess what he says! John Harvey might also have pointed out that this how the US government self-funds the military now, and everything else it spends money on, including Social Security. FDR knew...

I think that you don’t have to be an economist or have done a PhD involving econometrics (economic statistics) to see that the claim “doubling the monetary supply decreases the dollar’s exchange rate by 50%” does not hold at all. While monetary supply goes up almost all of the time, the exchange rate swung back and forth. There does not seem to be any causal relationship at all. This is not a surprise: almost all scholars of economics point out that the trade-weighted exchange rate is...

Serious blunder on the part of Pelosi. The Establishment is showing signs of desperation.The 2016 election should have showed the Democratic establishment that poking progressives in the eye was fatal. The 2018 election should have demonstrated the growing power and influence of progressives. The demographic projections should inform the "centrists" that the future of the Democratic Party belongs to the left as the youth rising in numbers and influence come to power.But losers will be...

Professor Hans Eysenck, who wrote the book, The Inequality of Man, said his research showed that the upper classes were more intelligent than the lower classes and this was the reason for their success. The ruling class loved him and he was esteemed as a world leading psychologist and scientist, but it turns out he was rather stupid, for he refused to believe that environment played any role whatsoever in the development of inteligence.  He just made an assumption that his I.Q tests measured...

“Republican Rep. Jason Smith yelled a potentially racially charged remark across the aisle as Democratic Rep. Tony Cárdenas was at the podium.” (Roll Call) This behavior provides an insight into the sheer callousness of some people.Nonetheless, this provides a good example to remember what has happened in Puerto Rico, as they now face an impending food crisis, as funding for food assistance runs out. Should that happen, we will need to start calculations of excess fatalities, based on Mr....

Oh, my. AOC goes there. "Follow the money." Legalized bribery and corruption. If she didn't have a target on her back, she does now. Brave woman, deserving of the title Alexandria the Great. Of course, there was Dennis Kucinich (and some others) before her. But they were before their time. AOC isn't. She represents a new generation coming of age. What a reality show this is turning out to be. Raw StoryWatch: AOC schools Congress with ‘Lightning Round Game’ exposing the chilling...

teleSURDonald Trump's War of Recolonization Against Venezuela Samuel Moncada Zero HedgeTrump To Sign Order Banning Chinese Telecom Equipment Next Week AntiMedia“Breathtaking and Terrifying”: UN Partners With CIA-Funded Palantir Jessica Corbett Popular ResistanceNICOLÁS MADURO: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES Nicolás Maduro, Facebook The WeekPelosi calls the Green New Deal 'the green dream or whatever' Brendan MorrowWashington Free BeaconOcasio-Cortez: Latinos Can’t Be...

The classic paternalistic quote.Lars P. Syll’s BlogPaul Samuelson — an economist in ‘the business of dishonesty’Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University