Mike Norman Economics

Crypto will probably be zooming again next year. I agree with John Paulson, though, it's backed by nothing, so could dissappear overnight. I think he describes it quiet succinctly. He also predicts that massive inflation may coming soon, but let's hope not."cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which promise independence from governments and large financial institutions, 'will eventually prove to be worthless,' "'Once the exuberance wears off, or liquidity dries up, they will go to...

The US sponsors kidnappings in foreign countries Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has been detained in Canada now for over 1,000 days as she fights extradition to the United States. Political and economic affairs commentator  Einar Tangen discusses.[embedded content]CGTN - Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, still detained in Canada

What is the “new mercantilism”? Joan Robinson says:…Nowadays governments are concerned not just to maintain employment, but to make national income grow. Nevertheless, the capitalist world is still always somewhat of a buyer’s market, in the sense that capacity to produce exceeds what can be sold at a profitable price. Some countries have experienced spells of excessive demand, but this corrects itself only too soon. The chronic condition for industrial enterprise is to be looking round...

Note: This is an unedited excerpt from my inflation primer manuscript.Even if we put aside the atypical argument that an increase in the money supply is how to define inflation, there is a widespread belief that increasing the money supply causes inflation (as normally defined). These beliefs can be traced back to what is termed the Quantity Theory of Money, which has a long history in economic thinking.I am extremely allergic to the Quantity Theory of Money. That said, my plan within this...

Here we show the after-tax profit and market capitalization of the top 0.01% of U.S.-based corporations, expressed as a % of U.S. GDP....Nitzan and Bichler view "capitalism" (monetary production economy with private property) as the ongoing struggle for power between capital and labor. Concentrated capital (monopoly and oligopoly power) is winning hands down in this round.Real-World Economics Review BlogThe power of dominant capital continues to riseJonathan Nitzan and Shimshon BichlerSee...

But even President Biden’s “big” rhetoric doesn’t fully capture the scope of his policy ambitions. He wants nothing less than to complete the unfinished business of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1930s-era New Deal, once again rejecting fiscal austerity while correcting for racist carve-outs, filling in the holes in our social and care infrastructure, and investing to abate the increasingly dire consequences of climate change. And he wants to demonstrate that the federal government—and...

Lawrence Summers is a New Keynesian economist. That means something. While there are nuances that exist between members of that school of thought, mostly to do with policy sensitivities and speeds of adjustment, the New Keynesian paradigm has demonstrated clearly that it is incapable of capturing the macroeconomic dynamics in any consistent manner, despite it being the dominant approach in the profession. So, it is no wonder when Summers provides opinions the underlying logic he demonstrates...

The Fascinating Photos of Afghanistan in the 1960's and 1970's. Afghanistan before the US and Pakistan turned it into a hell hole. The report also talked about different tribal groups fighting over Afghanistan’s resources funded by Pakistan. [embedded content]https://youtu.be/OP17WjQOrSYWhose Monster? A Study in the Rise to Power of alQaeda and the TalibanThe majority of the academic writing on the emerging subject of the Taliban and al Qaeda’s ascent tend to place the blame squarely at the...

 Buying opportunities?The sudden evaporation of deal flow has certainly gotten the investing community's attention, but at the end of the day, China is simply too large of a market for PE firms to ignore. So few expect it to last long.Jeffrey Lee, a partner at China-focused venture capital firm NLVC headquartered in Beijing, said robotics and manufacturing automation has been an increasingly hot sector. While more caution and strategy shifts are warranted, exiting China entirely would be out...

The flaw was that Afghanistan as a liberal progressive vision was a hoax in the first place: Afghanistan was invaded, and occupied, because of its geography. It was the ideal platform from which to perturb Central Asia, and thus unsettle Russia and China.Exactly. This was the real mission, and the rest was an excuse to justify liberal interventionism as cover for the hidden geopolitical and geostrategic agenda of US global hegemony. The excuse also became the excuse for gorging at the public...