Mike Norman Economics

The bloodiest period of Soviet totalitarianism ended in the fifties, but the habits remained long after, including the advanced system of alternative media that ultimately broke the state: samizdat.Tonight, along with Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and New York Post reporter Miranda Devine, I’ll be accepting the inaugural Samizdat Prize, given by the RealClear Media Fund. Samizdat is a bit of a play on words, since like a lot of politically oppressive groups the Soviets had a mania for...

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) of Conference Board recently put out “Explainer: The National Debt” which is pretty much a greatest hits of debt scare mongering. Other than the references to recent events and data, it is timeless: the authors could have put out the same report in any year since the mid-1980s and not much of the contents would have changed. Anyone who thinks that the MMT debate would improve things just needs to read the report to see that progress in...

The spectacular government spending post-2008 and post-2020 appeared to upend the neoliberal logic of the past decades, enabling bold public action and opening the door to a more just and democratic social order. Specific policy choices stamped out this opportunity. These pivotal moments did, however, point to policy levers that can facilitate a breakthrough....Brave New EuropePavlina Tcherneva – Whatever it Takes: How Neoliberalism Hijacked the Public PursePavlina Tcherneva | Founding...

Modern monetary theory has been influential in helping America rise out of the recession that crippled the economy during the pandemic, writes Professor Stephanie Kelton and Dr Steven Hail.The overwhelming number of articles appearing attack MMT pretty much as the work of the devil.  Regarding the the quote, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" (misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi), we seem to be at the attack stage. Independent AustraliaMMT sees...

The macro view. Dominant companies. And accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

Just three countries have so far introduced CBDCs, according to the IMF, and two of them are already having serious issues. The roll-out of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), while still in its early stages, is not going as smoothly as the central banking community may have hoped. The latest central bank to admit to serious difficulties is the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) whose governor Richard Byles has acknowledged that the rollout of the country’s CBDC, the Jam-Dex, has been a lot slower...

FYI. The information space is narrowing.Naked CapitalismGoogle Demands That We Censor Our ContentYves Smith

 Biden still has a big “inflation!” political problem…. Story at National Pulse:As the U.S. economy braces itself for the third year of an inflation surge that has substantially hiked the cost of living and sharply depressed real wages, most registered voters believe President Biden’s policies will cause prices to rise.   A poll by CBS News and YouGov released Sunday shows that 55 percent of registered voters believe Biden’s policies will trigger price increases. Only 17 percent of...

Record February and March 1 fiscal flows driving speculation.

This week, the UK Chancellor releases the latest fiscal statement (aka ‘the budget’) and will also have a eye to the general election which must be held before January 28, 2025. One would expect the government would stall the announcement and delay the election for as long as is possible, given the current situation and the cumulative impacts of 12 years of Tory rule, which are plain to see at all levels of British society. All the talk is of tax cuts, that typical ‘sugar hit’ approach to...