Mike Norman Economics

In most ways, Modern Monetary Theory—Functional Finance—is just macroeconomic common sense: We do not like high unemployment. We do not like excessive inflation. Thus the government should make it its first priority to use its tools of economic management so that we do not experience either. And maybe the government needs to be a little bit clever in how it uses fiscal and when and how it uses monetary policy to keep the task of financing the national debt from becoming an undue or even...

Gordon Dimmack explains why Luke Harding of the Guardian has been writing loads of lies and falsehoods about Julian Assange. It's because when Assange has to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy, the UK police will be able to hold him for enquiries, and then the next thing you will know, he would have been whipped off to the U.S.And everyone in the U.K will go about their daily affairs not knowing anything had been done wrong, trusting the authorities. [embedded content]

Everything is mixed up, I'm in the left but I wanted Trump to win. My liberal leftie friends were appalled. I went to an anti-war play held at a Quaker Meeting House, and I told them that Trump was better than Hilary and they looked at me as if I was mad.This conservative thinks that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be good for America. [embedded content] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman Congresswoman from New York, is a really big deal. She has become a hate object for conservatives,...

Thomas Fazi and I have been discussing the shape of our next book and I think it will be an interesting and worthwhile followup to Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (Pluto Books, 2017). We hope it will be published some time late in 2019. One of the angles that will be delved into is the way in which neoliberal narratives and constructs have permeated individual consciousness. Yes, sounds a bit psychological doesn’t it. But there is a...

The Britisher explains why most people don't want libertarianism. He seems to be a gentle, moderate conservative who values the state. I rather like him. This is a rather good comment someone left under the video. Anarchocapitalism works perfectly in the same universe that communism works perfectly...you know...the one where human nature is irrelevant. [embedded content]

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has been in the news again (and filled up my Twitter feed...). There have been a number of attempts to "explain" MMT by various American conservatives. As one might expect, those attempts have been pathetic; it is generally a good idea to have at least a reasonable grasp of a topic before attempting to explain it. Critics of MMT generally do not bother with that step. Since I am trying to work on other projects, I will only give a quick response to what I have...

Mark Weber argues in the Unz Review why conservatism is finished. He says identity politics is the real deal and conservatives have nothing to counter it -  because they're not even in the same league. He says on most social issues conservatives have now become liberal, which seems to be true. Even many people on the British far-right now defend gay and women's rights against 'intolerant Islam'.On YouTube, The Britisher gives a good account about why the British Conservative Party has...

Israel Shamir says it's difficult to get the truth out now, but the social media could have helped us, but, alas, they betrayed us too. There is not a single newspaper in the US that supports the views of the US President. Nobody defended him when he was accused, brazenly, in-your-face, of being a Russian agent. Nobody supported him when he called to bring the troops home from Syria. Nobody came to his aid when he mulled parting with NATO. There are tens of millions of men and women who...

In recent weeks Rachel Riley, a British TV celebrity, has tossed the Antisemitic slur in the direction of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Noam Chomsky, Ken Loach, Aaron Bastani, yours truly and others. In her first extended Ch 4 interview it became clear that Riley isn’t exactly an astute political philosopher. You can watch the entire Ch 4 interview here. [embedded content]

ProporNot are back, and if you use the words Neocon, neoliberal, imperialist, Zionist, warmonger, or establishment then you may a Russian propagandist, according to them. [embedded content]