Mike Norman Economics

Everyone is better off in absolute terms (growth, trickle down) but distribution is becoming more asymmetrical, with growth income and wealth occurring largely at the top tier AKA "the 1%." Marginalism and "just deserts" don't explain it. The issue is not only asymmetrical income and wealth but also asymmetrical power rather than "merit." Taking capitalism is the economic system that favors capital (ownership and control) over labor (workers, i.e., people) and land (the environment),...

The stock market is not a good predictor of recession.

Accounting control frauds target creditors and shareholders as their primary intended victims. Their primary weapon of fraud and predation is accounting. The art is to inflate assets and understate liabilities, which overstates capital and income. White-collar criminologists, economists, accounting academics, and regulators have explained the ease with which the CEOs running control frauds are able to suborn supposed “controls” (auditors, appraisers, attorneys, and credit rating agencies)....

Everywhere I read it seems, the ‘Green New Deal’ appears. I wrote a bit about it last week in my evaluation of the latest US job numbers – US labour market moderated in November and considerable slack remains (December 11, 2018). The point I made there was that a shift to a green economy would possibly generate around 21 million jobs (14 per cent of total US employment), which given reasonable estimates of excess capacity would require a huge shift in the employment structure and multiples...

Anglo-US imperialism is a real menace in the world. If is evil, but masquerades itself as the good guy. It says it brings freedom and democracy - down the barrel of a gun - and free markets , so the Western elite can buy everything up, and usually very cheaply, because they have caused a crisis and bought at distressed prices. [embedded content] Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This was not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and...

Historical backgrounder on Crimea. Asia TimesAn historical journey into Crimea Pepe Escobar

Warren Mosler tweeted this. Fascinating!Just think what Keynesianism would have been like if Keynes had the time to read more of the work of the economist, Abraham Lerner - well, we may have had MMT much sooner?Jeremy Corbyn makes the same mistake as Bernie Sanders by wanting to sound fiscally conservative about tax and spend because the paradigm has been set the conservative neoclassical economists who have told the general public that the country has to be run like the family household...

This is excellent!Michael Hudson describes how Rome fell when the creditors took over the Senate. They murdered the politicians who stood for the people and for debt reform, and put in charge someone like Trump who cut all the taxes for them. Debts spiralled out of control and the economy crashed. Rome was no more. [embedded content] Economist and author, Michael Hudson, in his new book “…And Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee...

Left to itself, capitalism will devour itself and the system under performs which means we all get poorer. But not only have neoclassical economists under played the role of banking in the economy, they also believe that maximizing profits is always best for companies and the economy, even if it means in the long term there is under investment. China is doing the opposite and leaving us behind.After a few years of high profits, at the expense of the long term health of the company, CEO's can...

When was the last time you have seen Noam Chomsky on TV, says, Oliver Stone? [embedded content] Oscar winner Oliver Stone says even he has difficulty producing films these days, because the US corporate media silences anti-war voices, and "We've really gone to the right in America."