Mike Norman Economics

Summary of a paper.Economics from the Top DownThe Long, Slow Death of the Free MarketBlair Fix

More on Chinese governance, in addition to polling public opinion and experimenting with pilot projects.China's governance system may not be "democratic" in the Western liberal sense, but it is attuned to the people because therein lies "the mandate of heaven."Sixth ToneChina’s ‘Mass Line’ Moves OnlineCai Tianji

Being of German nationality, I am proud of our Chancellor, Mrs Angela Merkel.  The first female chancellor of Germany and has been variously described as the “de facto” leader of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world.Angela Merkel was chosen by Germans to be their Chancellor in 2005. For over 16 years she showed a great example of leadership with skill, dedication and sincerity.In those sixteen years of power, there were no rebellions in her country. She did not appoint...

I have nothing against Elon Musk, who, on the whole, seems to be a fairly amicable person, but is there a problem with the system? The maga rich don't really do this for the money, they do it for the prestige and because they enjoy it, which wouldn't be any different if the tax system was changed. Elon Musk is currently the second richest person in the world. Between April 2020 and April 2021 Elon Musk made $383m per day on average. We took those numbers and compared them to everything from...

 Jim O'Neil treats the political dynamic and geopolitics as irrelevant to global economics, which includes ignoring the key role that the US and UK are playing in this dynamic, precluding the economic cooperation he recommends, as the US and UK intend in order to maintain and extend Anglo-American hegemony.Project SyndicateWill the BRICS Ever Grow Up?Jim O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK treasury minister, is a mem

Is class conflict returning to economics? David Ruccio refers us to Michal Kalecki's political aspects of full employment in his response to Martin Sandau. Short.Occasional Links & CommentaryClass conflict and economicsDavid F. Ruccio | Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Notre Dame

At present, the pandemic is causing massive fluctuations in the labour force aggregates to the point that it is very difficult to know more than that things a bad even when conventional indicators would normally be moving in a direction that would lead to the opposite conclusion. Today (September 16, 2021), the Australian Bureau of Statistics put out the latest – Labour Force, Australia – for August 2021. The background is that the entire East Coast is in or has been in lockdown over the...

It’s Wednesday and I have now settled back into my office after being stuck away from home for 9 weeks as a result of border closures between Victoria and NSW. So I am reverting back to the usual Wednesday pattern of limited writing, although today, the topic is worthy of some extended narrative. Before we get to the swamp blues music segment, I am analysing a speech made by the RBA governor yesterday on the role of monetary policy during a pandemic, whether low interest rates are driving...

Market rallied today as I expected due to reserve drain from corporate tax payments. But upside is capped for now.

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) can be applied to growing economies. Equally, as Jason Hickel rightly observes, MMT is also an appropriate macroeconomic framework for proponents of degrowth. The theory makes clear that a currency-issuing government always has the capacity to maintain full employment through implementation of a job guarantee, irrespective of the overall level of aggregate demand or rate of economic growth. As currency issuer, the government faces no financial barrier, nor has...