Mike Norman Economics

An inconvenient truth — history. However, capitalism, alone or chiefly, cannot be blamed. Historical development is a dialectical process with many inputs and a variety of factors that "could have been different." But they weren't different for a variety of reasons, some economic, some social, and some political , that occurred with bourgeois liberalization. The transition away from monarchy and feudalism influenced historical events not only through individual choices but also shaped it...

It just doesn’t let up with these banks. The timing could not have been worse: just as Spain faces its biggest constitutional crisis in over 40 years with Catalonia’s independence vote, another bank has begun to wobble.Liberbank, Spain’s eighth largest lender, was spawned in 2011 from the shotgun marriage of three failed cajas (savings banks), Cajastur, Caja de Extremadura and Caja Cantabria. The new bank’s shares were sold to the public in May 2013 at an IPO price of €0.40. By April 2014,...

They may get it wrong about the national debt, but interesting (and disturbing) none the less. Author of "Planet Ponzi" and fund manager Mitch Feierstein.on market manipulation by the terrorist central banks - buying "assets" - what it really is nationalisation by the back door. It is impossible for countries like the USA to pay back the debt they have racked up - so who loses? Why are the criminal bankers exempt for the rule of law, with all the criminal activity the banks and central...

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog – Reflections on a visit to New Zealand – which began by summarising some research I am working on which will be presented (with Dr Louisa Connors) at the upcoming MMT conference in Kansas City. This specific paper will be examining the role that fictional literature plays in framing false economic concepts and, thus, promoting neo-liberal biases among the readership, even when the plot of the narrative is ostensibly about something other than economics. We...

MMT itself is just a description of how the monetary system works in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, the EMU – everywhere there is a monetary economy. I dislike quibbling, but MMT is prefaced by an operational description of how monetary systems work, paying particular attention to the existing monetary system. This analysis reveals the policy space associated with policy choice regarding the monetary system and monetary operations. MMT is based on this analysis of policy space....

As many have said before, the ruling elite can just borrow all the money they want at almost zero interest rates from banks that create the money out of nothing and then they can go and buy up everything for sale in the world. Then the ruling elite will pay back the bankers the interest owed out of the profits they make from selling the world’s resources and commodities, but the bankers are the ruling elite. In other words, they got it all for nothing, People born in resource countries may...

The US Treasury’s proposal to target North Korea’s oil imports is very similar in spirit to the oil embargo that the US slapped on Imperial Japan in 1941 which triggered the attack on Pearl Harbor, thus bringing the prospect of a full-scale military conflict closer. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's proposal last week to target North Korea's oil imports via a new round of sanctions bears a striking resemblance to a similar move which led to full-scale US involvement in WWII almost...

Assuming this is true and there seems to be no reason to doubt it, inquiring minds would like to know if is this the military going rogue or US policy? Fort Russ"US-led Coalition jets deliberately bombed our positions to halt our progress against ISIS" - Babylon Battalions leader Al Mayadeen — translated by Samer Hussein

From Poverty to PowerBook Review: Norms in the Wild: How to Diagnose, Measure, and Change Social Norms, by Cristina Bicchieri Duncan Green, strategic adviser for Oxfam GB

Video and transcript.TRNNEquifax Data Breach is a 10 out of 10 Scandal Aaron Mate interviews Bill Black