Mike Norman Economics

I read an article once in the Guardian which said that a lot of intelligent people often feel lonely because they don't find the same things interesting as other people do.In another article I once read, there were these exceptionally intelligent people who were members of Menser, who said they were not intellectuals and just enjoyed the ordinary things in life like everyone else When Alain De Botton posits are intelligent people more lonely, he doesn't mean those who just score high in IQ,...

Sam Zell is a savvy investor who made billions $ as a contrarian in real estate. He has many of the same bullish arguments for gold as I have.

As the US is trying to do with China now, Britain tried to constrain the rise of its former colony become competitor. That didn't turn out so well. The US should take note. China is now pursuing a similar catch up and surpass policy that the US used against Great Britain, namely, "the American system of Hamilton and Clay," or "the national system "of Friedrich List. "Follow the leader," aka "leapfrogging."Project SyndicateAmerica Must Face Reality on China P.H. Yu | Chairman of the...

WHat MMT actually says is simply, as the FT notes: a different way of looking at fiscal policy, a way of describing what the real-world constraints on spending look like. Much of the rest can be taken or left, at will. Because it is not MMT.... Richard Murphy curiously proclaims that he understand MMT better than the MMT founders and limits the scope and scale of MMT based on his preferences.In reality, MMT is:1. An operational and institutional description of modern monetary systems, with...

Seriously, this is a topic of a major article in the paper. The story is that low birth rates over the last four decades mean that fewer people will be entering the labor force and this is supposed to be really bad news. "The declining population could create an even greater burden on China’s economy and its labor force. With fewer workers in the future, the government could struggle to pay for a population that is growing older and living longer."A decline in the working-age population...

We’ve been hearing that a lot lately, being asked about things like the proposed US-Mexico border wall, the possibility of universal health care, and even regarding existing programs like Social Security. It’s a relevant question, to be sure, but 99 times out of 100 (or maybe 999 out of 1000), the context in which it is placed is completely wrong.I say this because the question is almost always asked regarding whether or not we have enough money. If there is one place where the economics...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's simplification of her proposal to hike taxes on the super-rich in a tweet on Tuesday. Walker said he told a group of fifth graders that the policy amounted to their grandmother taking 70% of their $10 pocketmoney. In a viral takedown, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that the proposed marginal tax rate increase would only apply to the wealthiest Americans. Business Insider Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams 'far-right former...

While the Brexit shambles wound on in London, with the Prime Minister being walloped one day by her own party, and then the next given a victory, courtesy of some Labour Party bungling (the no-confidence motion), across the Channel things have been turning markedly sour. While the Europhile Left hold Europe dear to their hearts, the reality is that their dreamworld is falling apart. This is not only because of the incompetence of its polity but also because of the deliberate strategies of...

But the banks say they are unconcerned. They know the system is fixed, that's why.Yellow Vest protesters have urged supporters to withdraw their money from French banks en masse on Friday in a deliberate attempt to disrupt “the system”. Yet despite the threat, financial institutions appear unconcerned Protesters called for the first wave of cash withdrawals to start at 7pm (local time) on Friday, ahead of nationwide demonstrations planned on Saturday. “We’re going to frighten the state...

What does this shift in the Beveridge curve relationship mean? In a literal sense, it means that for a certain unemployment rate (on the horizontal axis), there is a higher rate of job openings (on the vertical axis). To put it another way, employers in the years after 2009 seemed more reluctant to fill their job openings, or as economists say, it appeared to be harder for employers to find a match when they listed a job among the workers who were applying for those jobs. The "matching...