Mike Norman Economics

Seven years ago, the US led an effort to address a problem facing governments everywhere. Each year, people manage to avoid paying an estimated $2.5 trillion in income tax — a giant sum that could be used to combat poverty, update infrastructure or lower tax rates for law-abiding citizens. Now, however, the US is becoming one of the world’s best places to hide money from the tax collector. It’s a distinction that the country would do well to shed. In 2009, amid growing budget deficits and...

I would phrase it somewhat differently: "It's the distribution, stupid."The social and political problems arise from grossly asymmetrical distribution and the ensuing distributional effects economically through highly asymmetrical income and wealth.Occasional Links & CommentaryIt’s the profits, stupid!David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Here: NAFDAC hereby alerts members of the public on the circulation of fake Coartem tablets. The active ingredients on the sachet of the fake Coartem tablets are written as ARTMETHE/UMFANTRNE while the manufacturer is written as NOVRTS. pic.twitter.com/J2auTl1nZ0 — NAFDAC NIGERIA (@NafdacAgency) December 28, 2017 Then here: Plenty of dupes while toiletry shopping in Venezuela: Hoed & shouders shampoo, Yahnsan's soap and more pic.twitter.com/U6SVo3ship — Patricia Laya (@PattyLaya)...

EVERYBODY is on board.We are about to hit trillion dollar deficits, and unlike last time, they'll be self-inflicted. https://t.co/4DE5Mt6OJ4— Maya MacGuineas (@MayaMacGuineas) December 29, 2017 Makes me wish there were futures contracts for the deficit instead of bitcoin...

Hayek, Coase and uncertainty. In any case I find it fascinating that the two, Hayek and Coase, both in their own way, brought the impact of uncertainty to the fore in the same year. It’s a shame that economics has never fully embraced, nor realized, the full richness of their ideas. Neither author was willing to step into the world that they clearly understood existed. Hayek was right about universal central planning: it is an impossibility. He was wrong to assert that this implied...

A very heated debate between Max Keiser and Dr Jack Rasmas. Max Keiser says central banks will be buying Bitcoin in 2018. [embedded content]

[embedded content] Ukraine’s Naftogaz and the Kiev administration have been praising themselves as victors after nearly four years of litigation against Russia’s Gazprom and the long-term gas contract signed in 2009. This legal adventure finally ended through arbitration in Stockholm this past Friday. Ukraine proudly declared themselves the winners as they narrowly escaped what could have been a national default. In truth, the Stockholm judgment does not look like a win for Naftogaz,...

An interesting  documentary about greed, happiness, Buddhism, and eternal life. Is our capitalist way of life making us happy, it seems for many, maybe not? Even with lots of possessions many people are still not fulfilled and keep on buying more things to get that short lasting thrill.But are we trying to bury the thought of our deaths when we buy more and more stuff we don't need, or when we are always desperately trying to have more fun? The documentary says how we feel spiritual but it...

Given its own policies, and those of the US, China is on track to become the world’s innovation leader. By the end of 2018, it will likely be apparent to all just how quickly and easily this latest chapter in the Chinese success story will be written. China poised to leapfrog the West? Project SyndicateChina, the Innovation Dragon Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF, is a professor at MIT Sloan, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and...

The Saker is pessimistic. Delusional imbeciles giving orders and dishonorable cowards mindlessly executing them. That is the setup we are dealing with.... All my education has always been based on a crucial central assumption: the other guy is rational. That is a huge assumption to make, but one which was fundamentally true during the Cold War. Today I find myself inclined to think that psychologists are probably better suited to make predictions about the actions of the rulers of...