Mike Norman Economics

The title is snark, of course. The only difference between the money system we’ve imagined and the one we are actually using is the terminology we apply to it. We call the government’s particular fiat-money “U.S. dollars.” We call the “Citizen’s Net Gain” our federal budget “deficit.” We call the savings accounts the government makes available to citizens and businesses “Treasury bonds”—and we imagine the government is “borrowing” the dollars being deposited in them. Finally, we call the...

Short review of Bill Mitchell and Thomas Fazi's Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World. IndependentActually the magic money tree does exist, according to modern monetary theory Youssef El-Gingihy

This article represents my initial comments on the question of the stability implications of locking interest rates at zero. Martin Watts, an Australian academic, had an interesting presentation at the first Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) conference (link to videos of presentations). Although MMT fits within a broad-tent definition of "post-Keynesian" economics, there are still sharp debates with other post-Keynesians. One topic of debate is the effect of permanently locking the policy...

As Israel threatens an expanded war against Syria and Lebanon, an emotional justification is the alleged April 4 sarin attack that was blamed on the Syrian government despite huge holes in the evidence, as Rick Sterling reports. Consortium NewsThe Trumped-Up Syria-Sarin Case Rick Sterling, investigative journalist See also SouthFrontMoscow: UN-OPCW Report Regarding Khan Shaykhun Chemical Attack Is “an Attempt To Mislead the International Community”lkb22

James Petras explains how China has a vision and is actualizing it, while the US is trying to maintain position. Beijing's strategy is based on economic policy. Washington's strategy is based on military policy.The analysis contains some interesting observations on the Chinese economy and where it is headed.James Petras WebsiteChina and the US: Rational Planning and ‘Lumpen’ CapitalismJames Petras | Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and...

Whether preplanned or inadvertent, one of the most likely and far-reaching consequences of the fake news RussiaGate scandal is that Facebook and other social media giants might soon come under strict regulation by the state.The artificially contrived and “deep state”-driven RussiaGate scandal has been inflated to epic proportions and has already resulted in the unexpected suicide of the US’ soft power, but this never-ending conspiracy theory is now poised to affect the rest of the world in...

Odds of an Israeli attack? IMO - 50%. Sic Semper TyrannisHariri resignation - Israeli attack comes next?Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.) At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service. He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to...

More twists and turns in the snake pit. Here we go again. Yesterday [Lebanese Prime Minister] Hariri was visited in Beirut by Ali Velayati, a top advisor of the supreme leader Khamenei of Iran. The Saudis did not like either. Thamer's plan was set into motion. They sent a private jet and hauled Hariri to Riyadh. There the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman gave Hariri his resignation statement (written by Thamer?) to be read by him on Saudi TV.  Irony alert: The Lebanese PM (with a...

Phil Murphy, a former banker with a double-digit lead in New Jersey’s race for governor, has made a state-owned bank a centerpiece of his platform. If he wins on November 7, the nation’s second state-owned bank in a century could follow.    For those few politicians who are aware of the banks’ magic money tree, the axiom that the people should own the banks – or at least some of them – is a no-brainer. One of these rare politicians is Phil Murphy, who has a double-digit lead in New Jersey’s...

Fred was one of the bravest and most decent journalists I ever encountered. He exposed the terrorism of the U.S. “carpet bombing” over Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia that was explicitly aimed at “drying up the sea” of millions of innocent village people that the U.S. government claimed were providing cover to the enemy during the Vietnam War. And when those people refused to accept our definition of their enemy, and return the love offered by our fragmentation bombs shredding their children’s...