Mike Norman Economics

Review and critique of the latest OECD World Economic Outlook, from a Marxian POV. Useful. The key for me, as readers of this blog know, is what is happening to the profitability of capital in the major economies. If profitability is rising, then corporate investment and economic growth will follow – but also vice versa. But if profitability and profits are falling, debt accumulated will become a major burden. Eventually the zombies will start to go bankrupt, spreading across sectors and...

Interesting article and a relatively short read. Here is the conclusion. Smith’s lesson here has broader applicability. An oligarchic democracy may be worse for the poor than an arbitrary government. A state, relatively autonomous from the elite, may care more about the “general interest” than an ostensibly democratic government that is in reality the government of the rich. Smith highlights, I think, in both his discussion of social cleavage in interests when it comes to colonies and in...

  Noah Smith puts Stephanie Kelton and MMT in the crosshairs of his sights. Bloomberg ViewBigger Deficits for Bad Tax Cuts Is a Bad DealNoah Smith | Bloomberg View columnist

A libertarian supports the Universal Basic Income. [embedded content] Today’s welfare system discourages aspiring for the American dream. What if we tried a universal basic income instead? For the full interview with Prof. Munger,

Another boom, but can it last! We are 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis, and unsecured consumer debt has reached more than £200bn for the first time since 2008. It’s up 10%, year on year. The best that can be said of the matter, as compared to the pre-crash debt boom, is that at least there are worries about it. The Bank of England and the credit ratings agency Moody’s are among those who have warned that the situation could be problematic. Which seems like an...

The arguments made against the American Empire are so compelling that Washington intends to silence them. [embedded content] RT’s Capitol Hill press credentials have been revoked after the network was forced to register as a foreign agent. This handicapping of RT journalists’ ability to report on US politics doesn’t surprise Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, who says the neocons find RT’s arguments too compelling to allow people to hear.

More bad news out of Europe this morning, I'm afraid it seems EZ area industrial expansion is at 17 year highs.Unfortunately, current ECB led fiscal redistribution scheme via negative rates and financial asset purchases seems to be working.ECB collecting EZ interest payments and somewhat equitably redistributing them back to the Treasuries of the member nations for fiscal spending and deficit reduction; ie redistributing EUR balances that would probably otherwise be saved by the non-govt...

PCR switches from his usual outrage to concern over monumental US hubris. Begging for nemesis?Paul Craig RobertsCan’t You See War On The Horizon? 

The USA Patriot Act, passed hurriedly after 9/11, taught us that rushing a surveillance bill through Congress is a bad idea, producing complicated statutes ripe for abuse. Yet the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee is taking a page out of President George W. Bush’s playbook and trying to do just that. Tomorrow, the committee will debate a bill that dramatically expands NSA surveillance authorities, including one that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The bill was...

Deficit hysteria rises just prior to the hitting of the debt ceiling due on Dec. 8th, which will ratchet up debt phobia, too. What else is new in Moronville? Behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, concerns were mounting, however, about Republican Senator Bob Corker’s push for a snap-back “trigger” amendment to the bill that would raise taxes automatically, possibly on corporations, if economic growth targets are not hit in the future, to offset a higher deficit.Conservative Republican...