Mike Norman Economics

[embedded content] In this Majority Report clip, Sam Seder and Professor Richard Wolff discuss how Marxism and modern monetary theory are a match made in heaven. I wondered when Richard Wolff would cotton onto MMT. He say's the MMT people don't say what they will spend the money on, but 'we' do. KV

Don’t get all excited. It’s a good ol’ fashioned short squeeze.

Today, May 1, we struggle not to forget the sacrifices of generations of workers to etch onto the world’s collective conscience the crucial principle that labour is not, and can never be, just another commodity. We struggle to remember past struggles so that the next struggles can be won in the name of humanism. The 1st of May commemoration is not an exercise in remembrance alone: Today’s generation is struggling against the same monsters that crushed the workers in May 1886 in Chicago –...

The notion that trade surpluses are a measure of a country’s economic prowess dates back centuries. In 16th-century Europe, “mercantilists” from England to Venice sought to accumulate gold by promoting exports and discouraging imports. Their intellectual heirs today think trade surpluses boost national welfare, employment and economic growth, while deficits do the opposite.The preoccupation with surpluses is based on dubious arithmetic: since one country’s exports are another’s imports, it...

Forget anticipating the consequences of AI. Obsession with increasing shareholder value, returns, profit rate, and profit share is already transformed the traditional role of workers and the concept of work. Real-World Economics Review BlogThe future of work is nowPeter Radford

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,...