Mike Norman Economics

Christiansen asked a question that I thought about for a while but never wrote about: how do certain ideas—in this case the idea of global inequality—arise? How do they get formulated? What explains that they become popular after not only being ignored but not even existing (as ideas) for a long time? Since I was involved in this process, I thought I would try to explain how—at least to me—this seems to have happened.It is useful of think of the interaction between four forces: ideology,...

On November 6, 2020, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – October 2020 – which shows that employment continues to grow, but will take a long time at this rate to make up the job losses incurred in March and April. Further, the unemployment rate fell by 1 point to 6.9 per cent and the participation rate rose by 0.3 points. So, on the face of it, this is a positive outcome – jobs growth, participation increasing and...

If banks create money out of nothing, and loans create deposits, then why do banks pay interest to depositors?TLDR; because the central bank sets their deposit rate above zero....New WaylandWhy Banks Pay Interest on DepositsNeilW

I am now returning to my work on recession analysis, covering the background research that will make its way into the second volume of recessions. I have more work to do on nonlinear DSGE models, but my argument is that they are not inherently that interesting, given their mathematical intractability. Yes, you can tell stories with them -- but so what? I can tell stories any number of ways, all of them more interesting.Rather than chase after hundreds of papers that I think are uninteresting...

 For those who may be wondering about institutional arrangements.MarketWatchCapitol Report: The next steps before Joe Biden is officially declared the 46th President of the United StatesChris Matthews

Some numbers.Zero HedgeChina Export Growth Jumps To 19 Month High, Defying Surging YuanTyler Durden

First female VPFirst Black VP (Jamaican immigrant father)First (East) Indian VP (Indian immigrant mother)First Black college grad VP (Howard University)The times they are a-changin'. Demographics on one hand, attitudes on the other. Barack Obama broke through one glass ceiling, and now Kamala (means "lotus") Harris has broken through another. ‘She is poised to not just put really big cracks in that glass ceiling in this election, but she’s poised to break the glass ceiling in a future...

Pretty much what I have been saying and could not say better.Global InequalityWhat we owe to Donald J TrumpBranko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceSee alsoThe Money IllusionBai...

Upping the ante. 6G is reputedly 100x faster than 5G.China is graduating 4x the number of STEM people the US is graduating. Russia is graduating the same number as the US with a third the population.Technological competition is good. It will improve living standards down the road as innovation is scaled.RTChina successfully sends world’s first 6G satellite into orbit to test technology

MMT wins in the UK, but the battle is not over yet either.New WaylandVictory to MMTNeilW