Mike Norman Economics

Short. These excerpts summarize the answer I would have given, too. Q. Which books can tell me, from a philosophical standpoint, what makes life worthwhile or worth living? A. Philosopher and author Julian Baggini writes:  Surprisingly, few of the world’s great philosophers have directly addressed this question. Instead, they have focused on a subtly different question: what does it mean to live well? In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle emphasised the need to cultivate good...

What we need is to disaggregate growth and report on the progress of all Americans. Instead of the one-number-fits-all approach of GDP growth, this new system would report growth for Americans along the income curve, much as the graphs above do. It might indicate, for example, that the bottom 50 percent of Americans experienced growth of 1.3 percent while Americans in the top 1 percent of earners experienced 4.5 percent income growth. Unfortunately, such a system is not currently possible....

Ambassador Nikki Haley’s decision last week to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council is remarkable. The United States is the first nation in the body’s 12-year history to voluntarily remove itself from membership in the council while serving as a member. Some have alleged that the timing of Haley’s decision is conspicuous. “The move,” read the second paragraph of a CNN report on Haley’s decision, “came down one day after the Office of the U.N. High...

In September 1970 Milton Friedman published an articlein The New York Times Magazine, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” Friedman, who has received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976, is probably the most influential economist of the second half of the twentieth century. His views have become the mainstream economic thinking, although few economists today care to state them as boldly as Friedman. In my recent book UltrasocietyI use the examples of...

The Centre for European Reform, which must have little to do given the snail pace of so-called ‘reform’ that goes on in Europe, released a report over the weekend (June 23, 2018) – What’s the cost of Brexit so far? – which all the Europhile Remainers found filled their Tweet and other social media void for the day. I would of thought that they would have been happy, given England’s demolition of Panama in the soccer and 5-zip thrashing of Australia in the ODI cricket tournament. But no,...

Great Keynes quote that bears repeating until it is no longer necessary to do so. There are various ways to do this, and a job guarantee is an obvious one in a capitalistic system.Lars P. Syll’s BlogNonsense is nonsenseLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

The FT reports that according to officials and people briefed on the discussions, the administration has decided to restrict China’s ability to invest in or acquire US companies in the industries identified by Beijing in its so-called Made in China 2025 plan.… "The Trump administration, kind of across the board, has very much blurred the line and seems to be saying that any significant economic challenge the US faces is also a national security challenge."  This is not new actually. It is...

The increasing income and wealth inequalities within countries is one of today’s great social concerns. This column describes how the tendency towards increasing indebtedness in much earlier societies was held in check by debt-cancellation Jubilees, and discusses ways to deal with today’s debt overhang and accompanying wealth inequalities. The funding of a modern Jubilee could come mostly, perhaps entirely, from a land/or property tax. Vox.euSome ways to introduce a modern debt Jubilee...

Determined to achieve geopolitical predictability, they've destroyed something far more precious. The U.S. military -industrial complex protection racket is still going at full force: invent enemies and then pretend to protect everyone - at a cost of hundreds of billions! The ruling elite have their nice mansions, golf courses, and lush green lawns, but I have read that underground nuclear bomb shelters are all in vogue too. Very nice! Last week, the House Appropriations...

Stephanie Kelton brings MMT to Great Britain.UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose | Rethinking how public value is created, nurtured and evaluated | Director @MazzucatoMPublic budgeting for public purpose Josh Ryan-Collins