Mike Norman Economics

There is a new variant of the global virus spreading again after being subdued throughout 2020. This is a very dangerous variant and if it takes hold will guarantee massive human suffering, and, a further, substantial shift in national income towards the top-end-of-town. I refer to the creeping infestation that is starting to pop up claiming that austerity will be required to pay for all the “profligacy” associated with government approach to the pandemic. I have seen this virus in the wild...

The action switches back to crypto's. Historic fiscal expansion underpinning this. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/mmt-trader/?s2-ssl=yes/ Download my podcasts! New one every week. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1105286 Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman

Neoclassical models are built around optimising behaviour. The logic for this is somewhat reasonable: one should expect the private sector to look out after its own interests, and not be tricked by policymakers into self-defeating behaviour. The aspiration is hard to argue against, the problem is the implementation. When it comes to recession analysis, the most blatant problems are in the modelling of household sector behaviour. Since working is voluntary, the hours worked in a period is...

 It's worth doing some yoga, pilates, or even just some plain stretching. Hypertension [or high blood pressure] is one of the leading preventable causes of cardiovascular disease. The preferred treatment for hypertension has long been moderate exercise. But a new study carried out at the University of Saskatchewan has found that merely stretching for 30 minutes is even more effective than a brisk walk.Universal SciStretching is more effective at lowering blood pressure than walking

Payroll employment highly subdued. 408 thousand workers exit the labour force due to lack of jobs. Overheating potential zero. In last month’s assessment – US labour market – things are getting worse again as the virus spreads (January 18, 2021) – I predicted things would get worse given the trajectory of the virus. I have formed a strong view that nations have to deal with the health issue before they can expect the economy to open up again. No nation can ignore a spiralling death rate and...

I’m taking the Bucs...  on defense...  (not a recommendation to blah blah...)

The State Council, China's cabinet, on Sunday issued antitrust guidelines on the country's platform economy, signaling a strengthened antitrust enforcement against monopolistic behaviors in the country's internet platform sector.The guidelines, drafted under the basic system of China's anti-monopoly law, consists of six chapters with 24 articles. It accounts the characteristics of the platform economy and basic principles of regulator's supervision, and gives specified guidance including but...

Andrew Gelman smackdown of Cass Sunstein.Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social ScienceNudgelords: Given their past track record, why should I trust them this time? (Don’t call me Stasi)Andrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia UniversityBonusJoan Robinson on conventional economics.Lars P. Syll’s BlogThinking about thinkingLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo UniversityRelatedBut shared beliefs that are in...

Schedule below that illustrates what they are supposed to do over the next few months:

You can see the type of slope ($/time) needed to really cause a big crash by looking at the last 2 they did in the graphs below... by “big crash” I mean one of the substantial  30% to 40% reductions in equity index asset prices (not to mention the associated real chaos) we have been getting once in a while over last couple of decades whenever they add large amounts of reserves in a short period of time and the depositories don’t have the regulatory capital to support it...The one last year...