Mike Norman Economics

 The new law prevents criminals from hiding money in US banks"It's difficult to overstate the importance of today's legislation,” he told The Independent, describing it as “the most significant anti-money laundering move the US has taken in decades, and potentially ever.”“Oligarchs and kleptocrats, gun-runners and cartel heads, wildlife poachers and human traffickers — anyone with a bit of dirty money burning holes in their pocket, really — can no longer turn to American shell companies for...

What are your thoughts? Just remember, the truth doesn’t matter. All major institutions will have to conform to the narrative that gets written by the powerful. As I have said before, no one in power will ever want a cost-benefit analysis of their policy choices—what is the incentive to prove yourself an idiot to the world? If anything, there will be some reports written that have obviously implausible counterfactuals and these will become the standard reference point for the official...

The Money on the Left Editorial Collective presents a classic episode from our archives along with a previously unavailable transcript & graphic art. In this episode, we are joined by Christine Desan, Leo Goettlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School to discuss her excellent book, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism. Desan argues that money is a constitutional project, countering the dubious “commodity” theory common to contemporary economic and legal...

Nature and evolutionHumans are not designed to be happy, or even content. Instead, we are designed primarily to survive and reproduce, like every other creature in the natural world. A state of contentment is discouraged by nature because it would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.The fact that evolution has prioritised the development of a big frontal lobe in our brain (which gives us excellent executive and analytical abilities) over a natural ability to be happy,...

Of interest. More about MMT culture than MMT economics.TNRThis Year's Underground Sensation: Modern MonetaryTheoryAlex Yablon

 Without fixes for infrastructure, education, health care and government, the U.S. will resemble a developing nation in a few decades.The U.S.’s decline started with little things that people got used to. Americans drove past empty construction sites and didn’t even think about why the workers weren’t working, then wondered why roads and buildings took so long to finish. They got used to avoiding hospitals because of the unpredictable and enormous bills they’d receive. They paid 6%...

 A strain of bacteria identified in UCC has potential to be used as a probiotic to reduce appetite in obese people and to ease “stress eating” associated with feeling overweight.Known as Bifidobacterium longum APC1472, it also has huge implications for people with type 2 diabetes, notably in helping to control blood glucose, according research findings published on FridayIrish Times Bacteria which can reduce appetite in obese people and ease ‘stress eating’ is identifiedp

The answer to the question posed in the title is No! Lawrence Summers’ macroeconomic assessment does not stack up. In – Is the $US900 billion stimulus in the US likely to overheat the economy – Part 1? (December 30, 2020) – I developed the framework for considering whether it was sensible for the US government to provide a $US2,000 once-off, means-tested payment as part of its latest fiscal stimulus. Summers was opposed to it claiming that it would push the economy into an inflationary...

Big bru-haha in GOP right now over Wal-Mart tweet...  pretty good rant from Bannon here taking down the right libertarians...[embedded content]