Mike Norman Economics

Regular readers will know that I think the current inflationary phenomenon is transitory. They will also know that I see the continual claims by financial market economists that central banks have to increase interest rates now to avoid an accelerating inflationary episode as having little economic content and lots of self interest content. If rates go up, they win their bets and the more they can bully authorities to do their bidding the more certain their bets become profitable. I am glad...

If the object was to limit imports from China the tariff was successful. If to stimulate domestic production, the tariff was a miserable failure. Imports just shifted to other Asian countries.The US is on track to import a record 27.8 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV panels in 2021U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar modules have not had the desired effectDirect shipments from China fell as a result of the tariffs, but domestic producers haven’t managed to fill the gapOilpriceWhy Tariffs On Chinese Solar...

 This is actually a big step forward although labor is unlikely to view it that way. This is what is supposed to happen in the case of technological innovation. Humans should not be doing these jobs if unnecessary.This is disposable labor rather than necessary labor, i.e. needed for social reproduction. Disposable labor can be either redirected using an employer of last resort policy or subsidized to increase leisure. (See Sandwichman (Tom Walker) at econospeak on disposable time). Zero...

Kaldor quote. Free trade leads to inequality by favoring endowments, i.e. developed regions over emerging ones.Although the post doesn't mention it, America took advantage of protectionism under the 19th. c. American System and then switched back to imposition of the British System after becoming dominant in the 20th c.The Case for Concerted ActionRamesh Chandra On Nicholas Kaldor And Circular Cumulative CausationV. Ramanan

This is the last month for child tax credit payments and student loan repayments start in January.

It is a measure of our collective delusion that we are so ready to be proud of high achievers and so slow to detect the wound that powers them on.[embedded content]https://youtu.be/BmcM6InBjM4

These claims are wrong. They are either not what MMT says or the telling is distorted. For the record, MMT actually says is quite different....Tax Research UKA Guardian article on the threat from modern monetary theory was quite staggeringly wrong. This is the rebuttal.Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum

Sleepy Joe getting absolutely hammered by the “inflation!” schtick….WATCH: CBS reports on Bidenflation and how wages have been “wiped out by skyrocketing costs.”Expenses for the typical American family up $4,000 from last year. pic.twitter.com/Ae1HbMQfgA— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 11, 2021

Summers finally applying MMT….Obama and Clinton economist Larry Summers: Prices will be "higher in 2022 and 2023 with [Biden's] Build Back Better.” pic.twitter.com/golNm5m7ls— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 11, 2021

Chief Justice John Roberts cited two cases from early constitutional law with a dire warning as the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday delivered a ruling on the near-total ban on abortion passed by Republicans in Texas.In an opinion where he concurred in part and dissented in part, Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotamayor and Elena Kagan."The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Court’s rulings," Roberts wrote, listing the legislative name of the Texas bill."It...