Mike Norman Economics

 In collaboration with Godfree Roberts and his excellent Here Comes China weekly newsletter.  This selection is but a fraction of what is a rich, complete and interesting newsletter.Mostly finance and economics.Global SouthHere comes Chinaamarynth

Look how these Art degree morons describe the result of this rocket test by Musk… “humiliating explanation!”…SpaceX Falcon Heavy landing explosion forces Elon Musk into humiliating explanationhttps://t.co/PSYWlohkHI pic.twitter.com/nQsiq2mQZe— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) June 27, 2019 Here’s musk: "The South African entrepreneur posted: “High entry force & heat breached engine bay & centre engine TVC failed.”  No biggie… make some adjustments…That was a few years ago now...

Second greatest scene in motion picture history… up at 4am to train and fails:[embedded content]We need to default…Yet here he is a month later:[embedded content]We need to default you pussies…

Its been around 9 months since the central banks of the world (bar Japan) started to push up interest rates. And still there are no firms signs that a recession is impending. There are some signs of a growth slowdown but that is not uniform across the globe. The US seems to be continuing to grow. While that suggests that monetary policy is less effective than the mainstream economists claim – which is no surprise to non-mainstream economists who have long understood that fiscal policy is the...

Stephanie Kelton traces the problem to misunderstandings resulting from a poor choice of terms in which to talk about government finance, modeling it conceptually on household and firms finance, even when the former is the monopoly issuer of its currency and all that implies financially and economically, whereas firms and households are users of the currency that must obtain the currency, e.g, to pay taxes, since the government is the sole supplier. Consequently, it's a mess that those in a...

Brazil and Argentina are making plans for a Latin American currency called the Sur, to “boost regional trade and reduce reliance on the US dollar”. Lula had pledged it while running for president.Geopolitical EconomyBrazil and Argentina preparing new Latin American currency to ‘reduce reliance on US dollar’Ben Norton

A new book from Edward Elgar Publishing in association with GIMMSDescription of the chapters and their authors.The Gower Initiative for Modern Money StudiesModern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

When the limit is reached, it forces Congress to reaffirm its willingness to spend what it is already legally obligated to spend.In my view (I am not a constitutional lawyer), the president should just ignore the debt ceiling as contradictory. Now, the president is assuming that one horn of the dilemma prevails when there is no logical reason for doing so. A constitutional argument can be made that the debt ceiling is in violation of the Constitution, specifically the Fourteenth Amendment,...

Mixed blessing, especially with the level of disorganization and divisiveness in India. Demographics leads to opportunities and challenges and population increase can increase growth but it can also present emergent challenges that are difficult to meet without high-level organization, which India has not demonstrated so far.In contrast, China recognized its demographic challenges decades ago, which was the purpose of the one-child policy. Now China growth has stabilized and even begun to...

Trade is settled either by barter, including using commodities, mostly precious metals historically, or a "safe currency" that countries are willing to hold. The USD, GBP, and EUR are considered safe currencies. Thus, an issue arises with "de-dollarization," which includes all currencies that Western powers control the use of. These currencies are considered "safe," that is, are not only default free but also relatively stable, but being subject to Western control, they put users at a...