Mike Norman Economics

ECB advisory groups are used as lobby platforms by the financial industry, Corporate Europe Observatory’s newest report shows. Published today, “Open door for forces of finance at the ECB” reveals that the advisory groups counselling the European Central Bank have become largely dominated by representatives of some of the most influential global financial corporations. European parliamentarians are urged to act. Like many other EU institutions, the European Central Bank (ECB) actively...

If you are keeping up with this. Some finer points.From the epistemological point of view, criticism of statistical significance here is based on questioning a criterion that is stipulated, i.e., defined arbitrarily.Doing so gives formalization and modeling a greater importance than advancing understanding. That is unscientific.A pragmatic approach is more appropriate than a strictly formal one, especially as an institutional norm.Formal rigor is a necessary condition but not a sufficient...

China is a prime candidate to be the site of the next financial crisis. Speculation in real estate and the stock market has been a favoured activity among people who feel they are getting very little interest from their savings in the banks owing to the policy of limiting interest to depositors in order to subsidize the influential export-oriented manufacturing lobby. The Shanghai stock market lost 40 per cent of its value in 2015, bankrupting many investors. That event led many to shift to...

"Immiseration" has a nice quality to it and is less emotionally loaded than "exploitation," which is now associated with "Marxism" in the pejorative sense in capitalist countries like the US. It’s clear that, for decades now, American workers have been falling further and further behind. And there’s simply no justification for this sorry state of affairs—nothing that can rationalize or excuse the growing gap between the majority of people who work for a living and the tiny group at the...

On May 6, 1997, just 4 days after coming to office in what was to become Tony Blair’s retrogressive regime, the then British Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that Labour would legislate the so-called independence of the Bank of England. The BBC claimed this was the “most radical shake-up in the bank’s 300-year history”, which gave “the bank freedom to control monetary policy”. Gordon Brown’s legacy to the British people, of course, is in his famous ‘light touch’ regulation, which he...

Alexander Douglas replies to Simon Wren-Lewis on MMT.Stories by Alexander Douglas on Medium by Alexander DouglasSimon Wren-Lewis, MMT, mathsAlexander Douglas | Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews

Apropos in light of all the furor over "Russian influence," what about Israeli influence through the American neocons? Philip Giraldi had the temerity to ask and found that it is not only politically incorrect, but it is also a firing offense.The Unz ReviewHow I Got Fired Philip Giraldi | former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, and a founding...

Opportunities and challenges for one of the world's two most populous countries, China being the other, of course.  China is more in the spotlight of development, but India is also playing catch-up.  India has the disadvantage of being modeled on a Western liberal democracy when this is not traditional in India. While China has a homogeneous and now well-developed form of governance, India is still groping with the residual of the British Raj and is not yet as organized and focused as...

I would like to consider the possible impact of three innovations—virtual currencies, new models of financial intermediation, and artificial intelligence. Some of these innovations have already found their way into our wallets, smartphones, and financial systems. But that is only the beginning. Are you ready to jump on my pod and explore the future together? As one of your fellow Londoners—Mary Poppins—might have said: bring along a pinch of imagination! 1. Virtual currencies...

The combination of MMT full employment policies and the job guarantee is the best way to strengthen family financial stability. The United States, which has a sovereign currency, can do that. The European Union nations that lack a sovereign currency will frequently be unable to do so. Jobs, not simply income, are essential to many humans’ happiness and sense of self-worth.... New Economic PerspectivesThe Job Guarantee Should Unite Anyone Interested in Strengthening FamiliesWilliam K....