Mike Norman Economics

Industrial production is the King of Coincident Indicators, and is the one whose peaks and troughs most frequently mark the beginning and end of recessions. It had been bouncing back strongly, but in the last several months, has hit something of a snag....The good news for the near future is that these supply chain difficulties are going to be resolved, and as they are resolved, production can be expected to pick up swiftly, given the surge in demand. The important issue will be that the...

Historical backgrounder. Largely a summary of God’s Shadow: The Ottoman Sultan Who Shaped the Modern World (Faber & Faber) by Alan Mikhail, chair of the Department of History at Yale.Most people in the West are only familiar with the history of Western civilization, ignoring what shaped its place in the world historically, including the Mongol empire and the Ottoman empire, which rivaled or surpassed the Hellenistic empire created by Alexander's conquests and the Roman empire. The...

So much ignorance and stupidity. They WANT you to take their money. It's your duty. Either that or you are too lazy. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/ Download my podcasts! New one every week. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1105286 Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman

The Russian government has approved a list of unfriendly countries. There are two names on the list - the United States and the Czech Republic. The instruction was uploaded to the official portal of legal information on Friday...."Partners" no more. TASSRussian government approves list of unfriendly countries.

98% approval of the CCP's management. Up from 95% in 2018.Interesting in that the CCP resorted to draconian measure to address the challenge and managed to get on top if it a matter of months. The priorities of governance are security, order, welfare, and distributed prosperity in that order. Liberties are adjusted to meet these priorities.The Washington PostDid the pandemic shake Chinese citizens’ trust in their government? We surveyed nearly 20,000 people to find out.Cary Wu | professor of...

Republicans, conservatives, and business interests are using the fact of recent rising prices to attack legislative proposals to increase government spending. They argue the recently passed $1.8 trillion ‘American Rescue Plan’ (Covid Relief Plan) by the Biden administration was too generous. And proposals to spend on Infrastructure ($2.2T) and American Families ($1.5T) will only stoke consumer spending and boost inflation further.They and their mainstream media friends are arguing that...

By defining today's geopolitics as a clash between democracy and autocracy, the Biden administration risks both empowering America's adversaries and undercutting its allies. And an us-versus-them approach will make it impossible to confront shared global challenges.…Biden's foreign policy is determined by the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex). Strategic blunder. These are the same types that gave the US Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq,...

Even with a strong recovery from the pandemic, creative destruction is needed to increase profitability of capital investment owing to debt overhang and excessive financialization of the global economy.Michael Roberts Blog — blogging from a marxist economistSome notes on the world economy nowMichael Roberts

Tens of millions of Americans will duly pay the taxes they owe and file for their refunds by Tax Day in 2021, which was delayed until May 17. Meanwhile, some of the wealthiest Americans will engage in complicated tax evasion schemes that will cost the U.S. government $700 billion this year, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.Tax evasion has reached such heights that the Biden administration is proposing bold measures to crack down on rich tax cheats. And academic research is...

Professor Ruccio has been quiet for awhile So I haven't been posting anything. But he has been working on the Marx book in the meantime. Here is a link that links to the updates at his place.Occasional Links & CommentaryMarxian economics—an updateDavid F. Ruccio | Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Notre Dame