Mike Norman Economics

Long, but you probably want to read through it.What happens when the next one hits. That's the great thing about capitalism — you know it is coming; you just don't know when and how bad. If the next one is a big one, all bets are off whenever it hits. American BankerThe crisis isn't over Victoria Finkle | deputy Washington bureau chief

It has been long argued that American income inequality was, in the past 40 years or so, exceptionally high compared to other OECD countries. The latest results available by Luxembourg Income Study that harmonizes income concepts across countries show inequality in disposable (per capita) income in the US to be 41 Gini points, that is, higher than in any other similarly rich country (Germany’s Gini is 32, British 35, Italian 35, Dutch 28). So, this part is not controversial.What is more...

Thousands of years ago, money was a means of debt payment, archaeologists and anthropologists say. Useful summary of the history.Science NewsConflict reigns over the history and origins of money Bruce Bower

Politics don’t matter; market forces shape our world. So ran the dominant ethos before 2008. Adam Tooze, the author of a landmark book, says it was always an illusion The City of London decided to face East as it saw the huge profits that could be made in China. But China's huge credit boom could bring the Chinese economy crashing down, says Adam Tooze, and then the City of London will be the first Western domino to fall. Alan Greenspan, Gordon Brown, and the neoliberals thought that...

Part 1 is here if you missed it when linked to here at MNE when it came out. The post begins with an analysis of geopolitics that is quite good. Its' a long piece and this is the most section that is most relevant to current events. Williams sets up a hypothetical scenario to examine the relevance of MMT to the issue has he has constructed it, which I think is a "good move." The future is uncertain, of course, so it makes sense to address a hypothetical case that seems to be...

Short and important.Economic Sociology and Political EconomyThe Sociology of Quantification: Seeing like Numbers Oleg Komlik | founder and editor-in-chief of the ES/PE, Chairman of the Junior Sociologists Network at the International Sociological Association, a PhD Candidate in Economic Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University, and a Lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the College of Management Academic StudiesSee alsoStatistical...

Sunday political sermon.Amen.Ghion JournaEt Tu Bernie?Teodrose Fikre is the editor and founder of the Ghion Journal.  See also That the President of the United States is a Russian asset needs to be openly acknowledged. He may be a naive, negligent or unwitting asset, a coerced asset, or a willing and enthusiastic asset, or some combination thereof, but at this point there is no getting around that he is a Russian asset.My readers who have followed me from progressive blogs presumably have...

I'm not an economist, but I do try to work things out, so I was wondering how we could bring some of the industry back to the West, but then I could see there might be a problem with inflation unless we use more automaton.I bought some tee shirts the other day for two for £8, and I wondered about the low wages of the people that made them. Then I had a thought experiment: Imagine if Western companies found another country where all the clothing for the UK market could be made at a fraction...

Apparently, when the film first appeared, there were only 46 views. After our post, it exceeded 20,000. It was then pulled, of course. Here is the new link. Let’s see how long this one will last. Armstrong EconomicsMagnitsky Act is Back Martin Armstrong

Loans to highly indebted businesses — that are packaged into securities — are up 38 percent this year. Was further deteriorating the banking sector a good idea? Whose idea was it anyway? KV Like most people, you probably assume that the level of lending done by banks at any moment is largely driven by how much demand there is from borrowers. But in the world of modern finance, that’s only part of the story. For just as important is the level of demand from investors — pension...