Mike Norman Economics

It is amazing how history is revised when it is convenient. It is also amazing how the same events, that from my perspective are rather clear, can be diametrically interpreted by others, who want to run a different agenda. A good example of these phenomena can be found in a recent UK Guardian article (August 11, 2017) – Jacques Delors foresaw the perils of austerity. How we need his wisdom now. When I saw the headline I thought it must have been an article seeking to elicit some sort of...

Cato Institute vs Niskanen Center Libertarianism.John Quiggin's BlogWhat’s left of libertarianism?John Quiggin | Professor and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the Australian Government

The dominant view of banks and other financial institutions is that they function primarily as intermediaries, managing flows of scarce funds from those who have accumulated them to those who have need of them and can pay for their use. This understanding pervades textbooks, scholarly writings, and policy discussions – yet it is fundamentally false as a description of how a modern financial system works. Finance today is no more primarily “intermediated” than it is pre-accumulated or...

In The Dialectical Imagination, Martin Jay says that economics was not a central part of Critical Theory, but that several scholars of the Frankfurt School worked in the area. One of the leading economists was Friedrich Pollock, especially after the Institute moved to New York. Like the other scholars of the Institute for Social Research, Pollock was trained in Marxist economics. This school mosttly followed Marx in thinking that capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own...

I like Peter Joseph; he's real nice guy.  He was once a trader and he made a small profit out of it but it didn't suit him. He's incredibly idealistic and I wonder if human nature would ever allow such a system system that he advocates. He's brave and never falters in his believe which is the complete opposite of our present capitalist system.Years ago lots of people did things for the common good, and penicillin was freely given away to the world saving millions of lives, but nowadays...

When it comes to critics of globalization with standing in the mainstream of the economics profession, few are better than Dani Rodrik. Nonetheless when it comes to laying out the indictment of the path pursued over the last three decades in a Washington Post interview, even he largely accepts the story that the basic story that “globalization” has some specific direction attached to it. The point here is that globalization, meaning the greater integration of economies across the world,...

Quote from Giancarlo Bertocco, "Some Observations About The Loanable Funds Theory" Lars P. Syll’s BlogKeynes vs. Wicksell — the loanable funds theoryLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

At some point, everyone reaches a crossroads in life: Do you decide to take that job and move to a new country, or stay put? Should you become a parent, or continue your life unencumbered by the needs of children? Instinctively, we try to make these decisions by projecting ourselves into the future, trying to imagine which choice will make us happier. Perhaps we seek counsel or weigh up evidence. We might write out a pro/con list. What we are doing, ultimately, is trying to figure out...

Backgrounder on the Democratic Party abandoning of the New Deal and trying to capture the center by moving right. The post doesn't mention it but this began under Jimmy Carter. The Bonddad Blog"The Changing of the Guard:" the prescient 1980 book that foretold neoliberalismNew Deal democrat

Congress has 12 working days to raise the nation's debt ceiling when it returns in September. Failure ot raise the debt limit would cause severe economic and political consequences. Negotiations have been sluggish, with one Democratic aide saying there are currently "no talks" ongoing. Tidbit: "With President Trump, debt ceiling options like the Platinum Coin and the 14th Amendment — while unlikely — are now at least a possibility," said Chris Kruger, an analyst at Cowen Washington...