Mike Norman Economics

Earlier this year, a Stigler Center paper by Luigi Zingales [Faculty Director of the Stigler Center and one of the editors of this blog] argued that market concentration can lead to a vicious circle, in which companies use market power to gain political power that in turn allows them to gain more market power, and vice versa. Zingales called this the “Medici vicious circle”: “Money is used to gain political power and political power is then used to make more money.”A new UN report shows...

The Occupy Movement perhaps first raised global awareness of the growing dissatisfaction with market-based capitalist economy. Banks too big to fail, government bailouts, and rising income inequality drew the ire of millions around the globe. Since then, the calls for a rethink of our economic paradigm have grown louder. One potential framing which has gained followers is Postcapitalism, popularized by Paul Mason in a book of the same name. Postcapitalism is not a return to Marxism, but...

That the CIA and FBI are still choosing what we should be allowed to see concerning who murdered John Kennedy may seem unusual, but there is hoary precedent for it. After JFK’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, the well-connected Allen Dulles, whom Kennedy had fired as CIA director after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, got himself appointed to the Warren Commission and took the lead in shaping the investigation of JFK’s murder. By becoming de facto head of the Commission, Dulles was perfectly...

US capitalism is again careening down blind alleys. Earlier it had crashed into the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933 before lurching into the New Deal. After 1945 it concentrated on rolling back the New Deal until it turned sharply to neoliberalism and “globalism” in the 1970s. That provided the comforting illusion of a few decades of “prosperous normalcy.” When the second major crash in 75 years hit in 2008, it exposed the debt-dependent reality of those decades. It also sent capitalism...

With ever bigger military budgets, and ever growing ambitions, the U.S. military is relentlessly building up potency, which is nevertheless always framed as defensive, even benign. Something tells me the Russians don’t see it this way. Bracing ViewsRelentlessly Building Potency: The U.S. Military Encircles Russia William J. Astore, retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor who has taught at the Air Force Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Pennsylvania College of...

Mostly about John Taylor who seems to have made the final cut for Trump's short list to replace Janet Yellen, along with Jerome Powell, who is now a member of the Fed Board of Governors. Should Fed policy be rule-based (Taylor) or discretionary (Powell)? David Glasner argues against John Tayor and in doing so, gives us a close look at Taylor and his rule-based approach to monetary policy.Uneasy MoneyLarry Summers v. John Taylor: No Contest David Glasner

At least 20 universities have established research institutes which will advocate the incorporation of Xi's ideology into all aspects of daily life Imitating the Koch Brothers and other business leaders in the US? Not just the US either; UK too. Asia TimesEducation or indoctrination? China gets ‘Xi Thought’ institutesAgence France-Presse

Important economic policy themes identified at this month’s 19thNational Congress of the Communist Party of China are largely amplifications of policies already announced in various forms.“Supply-side” reforms Deleveraging Belt and Road Initiative Asia TimesThree key economic policy themes sounded at China’s Party CongressDavid P. Goldman

The timing could not have been better, at least for me. It just so happens I’m teaching Thorsten Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class this week. It should become quickly obvious to students that, as I have argued before on this blog, we’re now in the midst of a Second Gilded Age. This is confirmed in a new report by UBS/PwC, according to which, after a brief pause in 2015, the expansion in billionaire wealth around the world has resumed. This is an inevitable result of a system that...

$100,000 is exactly the amount the Comintern gave in the 1920s to organize a campaign against John L. Lewis leading the mine union. No, I am not adjusting for inflation, so in real terms the sum in the 20s was much higher. The Comintern also gave at least $35,000 to start the Daily Worker, again that is a nominal figure from the 1920s. The American Communist Party received subsidies too. Many other communist subsidies, media and otherwise, remain hidden or at least uncertain....