Mike Norman Economics

We start to see the absurdity of the current reliance on monetary policy as a counter-stabilisation tool, when you read the calls from the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member talking about the risk of a ‘significant inflation undershoot’. In a detailed analysis of the current situation, the external MPC member noted that inflation was falling faster than expected because the supply constraints were reversing quickly. She also noted that the interest rate hikes had now reached a...

The Chinese people are such fanatics about educating their offspring that the Chinese government felt it needed to step in and give the kids a break by liming their exposure to both formal education (amount of homework) and informal education (after-school tutoring). Tutoring was a growth industry in China until the reforms curtailed it. It had already expanded outside mainland China and now the push is on to expand it further to make up for the market lost in China. It serves not only...

Washington is used to controlling the planet’s top tech companies and doesn’t want anyone to threaten its surveillance domination.The predictable result of this trend toward "weaponization" of commerce is already leading to de-dollarization, another consequence will likely be a bifurcation of the Internet into US-controlled areas and areas isolated from not only US control but also US access. Worse, it could spark Internet atomization, as countries attempt to protect themselves and the...

This is a reason I put "inflation"" in quotes — lack of theoretical (causal) explanation and problems with measurability since "inflation" is not directly observable, while "inflation" gets treated as if it were a "thing." It's not only complicated but also complex, since prices are affected by expectations under uncertainty.ConclusionMore research is clearly needed to understand the best measures of inflation to inform macro models, especially as the U.S. economy continues to respond to...

Video and transcript.Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of NeoliberalismAll or Nothing Foreign PolicyDanny Haiphong interviews Michael Hudson

It’s Wednesday and so I have a few items to discuss followed by some music. Many readers have E-mailed me asking about last week’s decision by the OPEC+ cartel to cut production of crude oil by 1.66 million barrels per day. Taken together with the previous cuts (2 millions barrels per day) in October, this pushed the price of oil up within a day or so back over $US80 per day. Many commentators immediately announced this would drive inflation back up and force central banks to go harder on...

As a further comment on “funded” public pensions (link to previous note), I just want to comment on the side effects of such “funding.” (To recap, a central government could create fictitious bonds to match “pension contributions,” which has the same cash flows as a pure “pay-as-you-go” scheme. The alternative Canada has switched towards is to buy financial assets with the “pension contributions” — although some of those assets would be reinvested in bonds guaranteed by the Government of...

Uncharted territory that doesn't look friendly for the West.India PunchlineOPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymoreM.K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service and former ambassador. See alsoThe CradleSaudi Arabia makes its Eurasian shiftAgha HussainAlsoRT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)More countries may join oil production cut – Moscow

The article attempts to show how the US has had an anti-competitive stance for almost a century and in particular since WWII. China is now in the crosshairs of it.This analysis also suggests how the US is reducing the competitiveness of the EU/EZ similarly. The EU was founded on the realization that European countries could only compete with the US by forming an economic bloc. This is a short article with documentation rather than a blog post.MR OnlineThe U.S. is trying to persuade China to...

India aims to consolidate its emerging leadership in the Global South, which explains the priority focus that’s now being given to internationalizing the rupee. Upon making significant progress on this, it’ll then be able to function as an independent pole of economic influence across Afro-Eurasia, taking full advantage of its geostrategic location to accelerate South-South integration processes.De-dollarization is the top financial trend of this decade, but it concerns much more than just...