Mike Norman Economics

We kid ourselves when talking about change. I see a lot of Op Ed material recently from the so-called Left that seems to suggest, for example, that those concerned about climate change are really just handing the keys to capital who will use the appetite for ‘change’ to impose punitive policy shifts that will damage the poorer households and communities, while at the same time, strengthen the elite control over income distribution and governments. There are elements on the Left that also...

Critics of labor-market programs such as the Job Guarantee argue that they enable precisely this sort of choice—they make it easier to decline work that one doesn’t like. One program participant in his thirties told me that, while on unemployment benefits, he’d been offered a job cleaning toilets at a gas station; he’d decided that he didn’t want “that sort of job,” and had instead found work in the carpentry workshop. If everyone were guaranteed a reasonably pleasant job, suited to their...

Gee, I wonder why? Tax drain, just like September. I told you this would happen. But not to worry. Watch my August video where I told you this. https://youtu.be/fEiT-eV9PDA Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.mmteconomics.com/ Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman Mike Norman Economics: https://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/ Understanding the Daily Treasury Statement video course....

I have handled numerous requests for interviews over the past few months, even some from high school and college students struggling with these same questions. My response has been the same every time and I will lay it out below. Suffice it to say at the outset that inflation, like Johnny Depp’s relationship status, is complicated.Forbes — Pragmatic Economics What To Do About Inflation?John T. Harvey | Professor of Economics, Texas Christian University

It's me against Blackrock. The former is predicting a recession like "we've never seen before," while I say 2023 will be an economic boom. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.mmteconomics.com/ Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman Mike Norman Economics: https://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/ Understanding the Daily Treasury Statement video course....

Yves here. This post describes some of the too-obvious signs that the notorious Russian oil price cap was not terribly well thought out. I have to confess I had forgotten that I had learned back in 2008, during the debate over the big oil price runup in the first half of that year, that Saudi oil price sales were based not on spot but an average of specified futures prices to impede manipulation. It appears similar mechanisms are widely used now. The article below discusses how pricing is...

Attempts to control markets have always led to successful blackmarkets. Black and grey markets have existed for dealing with sanctions before Russia was sanctioned and Russia has been taking a similar course. John P. Ruehl explains some details.CounterpunchHow Russia is Countering the West’s Economic SanctionsJohn P. Ruehl, Globetrotter

Adding to the astute observations in the post below, the proven alternative is international settlement in gold, as was the case until the US unilaterally abrogated Bretton Woods. If history is a guide in this, the verdict is in. "The barbarous relic" rules. Could this actually happen? If things get crazy enough.In the final analysis, the means of settlement dictated by producers of vital is the determining factor. Economies don't run on financial instruments but real goods and especially...

Greenwashing protectionism.Moon of AlabamaGreen-washing The Trade War With China

In discussions about the significant differences that we have observed over the last 30 odd years between the conduct of economic policy in Japan and elsewhere, the usual response from mainstream economists, when challenged to explain the outcomes in the former nation, is that it is ‘cultural’ and cannot be applied elsewhere. I always found that rather compromising because mainstream economics attempts to be a one-size-fits-all approach based on universal principles of maximising human...