Mike Norman Economics

In the face of all the supposed bullishness the dollar’s rally has been remarkably unimpressive.

The vast majority of economists believe that the Fed's asset holdings keep down U.S. interest rates. It is inconsistent to believe that the Fed's holdings of U.S. assets keep down interest rates here, but China's holding of foreign assets does not keep down the value of its currency. Beat the PressDoes China's 2.5 Percent Inflation Rate Really Explain the Decline in the Value of Its Currency Against the Dollar?Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in...

I have read that the reason there will never be a libertarian society is that libertarian are so individualistic that they can't agree on anything - it's like herding cats.  Libertarians are a querrelsome lot, but hey, come to think of it, that might apply to us here too?Jerry Taylor is a left leaning libertarian who was once a member of the Cato Institute and in his interesting article he points out some of the faults, in his opinion, in libertarianism thinking. He believes that a strong,...

Three major players – the United States, China, and a loose coalition formed by the other members of the G7 – are shaping the future of the international economic and geopolitical order. And they are all engaged in three contests simultaneously, without knowing which one is the most important. This is about international relations, geopolitics and geo-strategy, and these fields are generally analyzed in terms of game theory. The only one that can know which game the US is currently...

President Putin sees this plainly: “The Americans keep on indulging in these games as the actual goal of such games is not to catch Russia in violations, and compel it to abide by the treaty; but to invent a pretext to ruin that treaty – part of its belligerent imperial strategy”. Or, in short, to impose a ‘rule-less, US, global order’. What is happening is that Bolton and Pompeo seem to be precisely taking Trump back to the old 1992 Defence Policy Guidance document, authored by Paul...

POTUS as troll-in-chief.The WeekJon Stewart expertly explains how Trump punks the media

I was in China October 20-28, throughout which I experienced and carefully observed China first hand. Here is a summary: China is doing very well, as usual, and the trade war between the U.S. and China has zero effect on average Chinese citizens, so far. Specifically, let me highlight four points:The opening of the HK-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. China's Import Expo. Japanese PM Abe visited China. China in the large. econintersect.comWhat is really going on in China? Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat,...

It is Wednesday so just a few things to report and discuss. I have noted in recent weeks an upsurge in the Twitter noise about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and various statements along the lines that MMT economists are male chauvinists, mindlessly attack other heterodox economists because we are a religious cult, that we thrive on conflict, that only the US has a sovereign government and more. Quite amazing stuff. And these attacks are coming mostly from the so-called heterodox side of the...

All of this intense mental activity in direct competition with a cognitive ability to abstract; perhaps leaving these ancient people deficient in or maybe even without any ability to abstract (scary!!!): The Jews used mnemonic devices, or memory aids to help them memorize Scripture.With such a demand on memory, there were ingenious memory devices and aids invented to aid in the memorization of the Torah and oral law. One such aid was involving the whole body in learning – it was thought...

There has been an intense academic and policy debate on what monetary architecture is the most appropriate recently, but many issues are still unresolved. This column looks at the circumstances under which the current system and the sovereign money system yield the same outcomes, the core arguments in favour of the current system, and what advantages a sovereign money architecture might offer.... Vox.euSovereign money: A challenge for scienceHans Gersbach | Professor at CER-ETH - Center of...