Mike Norman Economics

Conflict of interest watch. Yes, this is as bad a violation of academic standards as it looks: Henry Farrell: THE PUBLIC CHOICE OF PUBLIC CHOICE: “Now this… ‘financial ties to the Charles Koch Foundation… [but] George Mason University has cited its academic independence… Busted. WCEG — The EquitablogYes, this is as bad a violation of academic standards as it looks: Henry Farrell: The public choice of public choice Brad DeLong

Even as the West favors airstrikes against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and steers clear of supporting the president in rebuilding Syria, China has stated that it is interested in reconstructing the war-torn nation, and Chinese firms are lining up to become part of the process. The reconstruction cost is expected to amount to $250 billion, according to the United Nations. China’s motivations are apolitical, and are not aimed at opposing the policies of Western nations. Rather, China is...

Assumptions, metrics, empirics, historical ignorance, assuming the conclusion — let me count the ways. Anyways, I want to focus on the failure of economic theory. I think any well-trained economist in some field knows how to tweak assumptions to get any results that they want. Start with a model of perfect competition. Add an information asymmetry, a transaction cost, a search cost, sticky prices and a Calvo fairy, some monopoly or monopsony, whatever. Then you can argue that some policy...

Federal Reserve always wants millions of people to be out of work… Put more bluntly, it’s worth at least thinking about what Bernie Sanders would do to mitigate the impact of Jerome Powell. Buffer stock of employed versus buffer stock of unemployed.MarketWatchOpinion: Proposals to guarantee jobs spotlight uncomfortable truth about Fed Steve Goldstein | DC Bureau ChiefSee alsoWhy the Fed should give everyone a checking account Greg Robb | Senior Economics ReporterSee also But the threat...

Regular readers will know that I have delved into social psychology in the last decade or so as a way of educating myself on why ideas survive when their logical consistency is lacking and their empirical content is zero. I have gained a good understanding of this phenomenon by exploring the literature on patterned group behaviour and the work by Irving Janis in the early 1970s on Groupthink. While I usually demonstrate instances of this destructive group behaviour on the part of the Right,...

How it worked, why it failed and how MMT Job Guarantee proposals avoid those problems Modern Money MattersThe UK’s Unofficial Job GuaranteeNeil Wilson

Many mainstream economists have the idea that because heterodox people — like yours truly — often criticize the application of mathematics in economics, we are critical of math per se. This is totally unfounded and ridiculous. I do not know how many times I have been asked to answer this straw-man objection to heterodox economics.... There is another issue in the use of math with respect to economics. That is translating what a model says and implies for policy formulation.For example, do...

Banking sausage still grinding... slowly. The ABA focused on pushing the bill through the House during its Washington, D.C., summit last week. The group’s leaders rallied more than 1,000 bankers to visit Capitol Hill in support of the measure before it could be swallowed by political dysfunction.  “I can’t tell you exactly where the next step is, but it will be soon, and very soon, that this legislation will be moving forward,” said James Ballentine, ABA executive vice...

The UK is facing a binary choice between a deep trading relationship with the EU or the US, according to a report from MPs on the International Trade Committee (ITC). Efforts to drop regulations in a bid to land a quick Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US could result in the erection of fresh trade barriers between the UK and the EU, the report claimed.… Detailed report. Longish.The TelegraphUK faces 'binary choice' of EU or US trade, MPs warn Anna Issac | Economics Correspondent

The news is not the news. What you are seeing on the tube on the nets is not necessarily the truth. That's a shocker, huh? Today's propaganda blitz came courtesy of Israel's Bibi Netanyahu. In a carefully staged managed presentation, Bibi one upped Colin Powell's lamentable lie fest before the UN Security Council in January 2003. While Powell's mission back then was to get the world in line for an unprovoked, illegal attack on Iraq using the false guise of weapon's of mass destruction,...