Mike Norman Economics

Assad Doesn’t Care if More of His People Starve This article frames the US as the good guys, but says sanctions won't work.  In the real world, “quagmire” is simply a misleading term for a failed state. And failed states leave their populations exposed to hunger, disease, poverty, and predatory warlords. The Trump administration skirts this grim reality by insisting that sanctions work. Yet there is little evidence that economic sanctions ever achieve their objectives. Even the...

Dispute settlement clauses in trade agreements open way for investors to demand compensation for lockdowns Profits before the people!Governments around the world – including the UK – face a wave of lawsuits from foreign companies who complain that their profits have been hit by the pandemic. Webinars and presentations shared with clients reveal that leading global law firms anticipate governments around the world will soon face claims over their response to the Covid-19 crisis. The actions...

Coronavirus infections take a heavy toll on Latino people in their prime working years, data show Covid-19 is known to be particularly risky for the elderly. For many minorities, the disease is killing them in the prime of their lives. Among people in the U.S. who died between their mid-40s and mid-70s since the pandemic began, the virus is responsible for about 9% of deaths. For Latino people who died in that age range, the virus has killed nearly 25%, according to a Wall Street Journal...

‘Modern Monetary Theory gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy’ Balancing budgets, reducing deficits and eliminating debt: these priorities have preoccupied the minds of many Canadian politicians, economists and voters, but a different theory of macroeconomics is having a moment, as the world weathers a pandemic. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) proposes a shift in focus from a balanced budget to a balanced economy: one that offers full employment, a more...

Economist, Pavlina Tcherneva, weighs in on the CARES Act and what lawmakers need to do to help strengthen the U.S. economy. [embedded content]

The U.S. has never had enough coronavirus tests. Now a group of epidemiologists, economists, and dreamers is plotting a new strategy to defeat the virus, even before a vaccine is found. Michael mina, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, believes we could have covid-19 under control within weeks, but not all epidemiologists are convinced. His optimism, though, that it can work is inspiring. The Atlantic  The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back

Robert Hormats says the pandemic has forced the ‘involuntary utilization’ of MMT. Robert Hormats, who has worked in senior economic and trade policy roles under five different U.S. presidents and spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., believes the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the government to embark on what could be considered an involuntary experiment with Modern Monetary Theory. Now a managing director at wealth-advisor Tiedemann Advisors, Hormats joins this week’s “What Goes...

As levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide continue to climb, scientists are looking for new ways of breaking down CO2 molecules to make useful carbon-based fuels, chemicals and other products. Now, a team of Brown University researchers has found a way to fine-tune a copper catalyst to produce complex hydrocarbons—known as C2-plus products—from CO2 with remarkable efficiency. Physics Org New catalyst efficiently turns carbon dioxide into useful fuels and chemicals

John Wright is a Scottish sports journalist who specialises in boxing, but he is also a political commentator and writer. He recently tweeted about his early life experiences which had made him a lifelong socialist. His story was similar to mine, so I tweeted it, but he was the only person who gave it a like, and then he followed me too. I thought I would put my tweet out here.  I came from a council estate in South London. We were very poor as my dad had multiple sclerosis and...