Mike Norman Economics

Worst-case scenario numbers. World Economic Forum$82 trillion over 5 years? Cambridge study counts the cost of coronavirusShalini Nagarajan

Another ominous sign. Will the aircraft and airlines industries need a bailout?Zero HedgeBoeing Slashes 6,770 US Workers, Sees No Recovery In Air Travel For "Years"Tyler Durden

Some Wednesday snippets today. Tomorrow, I will write about what I have been thinking about the Eurozone. There has been a lot of hot air about the Franco-German accord that Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel came to recently. Hot air is the operative term. The fault lines in the Eurozone continue to widen and the policy dissonance is becoming more acute as they deal, not only with the health crisis, but also the 19 economies that have been starved of investment and infrastructure...

They wait and wait and wait until it's all clear, but that's usually a bad time to buy.

The energy transition can be compared to a marathon instead of a sprint. As the costs of photovoltaic cells and wind turbines have significantly decreased, decarbonizing the economy has become attainable. The wealthier countries of northern Europe are, arguably, some of the most ambitious societies when it comes to the energy transition. Germany, especially, is an important country due to the size of its economy, political influence in Europe, and technological prowess. Hydrogen is an...

Policy choices. My policy solution is that economic liberalism and political liberalism are incompatible. So-called capitalism (including  capital and land ownership) cannot coexist with genuine democracy as rule of, by and for the people based on egalitarian community.  The economic system that corresponds with so-called capitalism is plutocratic oligarchy, for which there is ample evidence in sociology and political theory. The economic system that corresponds with genuine democracy...

We’re back from a holiday weekend but the Senate is still out of session, having left Washington without acting on more economic aid. The official line from Republicans is that it’s time to see how previous efforts work before considering more. And anyway, the economy’s opening back up, maybe it won’t need federal support. This is a dangerously wrong attitude, especially because of the realities of the political calendar. Decisions will be made in the next few weeks that will put the...

On April 9, the Federal Reserve announced that it would take additional actions to provide up to $2.3 trillion in loans to support the economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Among the initiatives are the Primary Market and Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facilities (PMCCF and SMCCF), whose intent is to provide support for large U.S. businesses that typically finance themselves by issuing debt in capital markets.... Creditor of last resort. FRBNY — Liberty Street EconomicsThe...

In the wake of the $A60 billion bungle, the Australian government has turned its attention to creating smokescreens. Yesterday (May 25, 2020), the Treasurer released a statement – Temporary changes to continuous disclosure provisions for companies and officers – which effectively allows corporations to withold information from the public and investors about the state of their company finances. It will now be very hard to prove that company directors have mislead their investors. This is one...

Some American strategy thinking.OilpriceIs The U.S. Prepared For War With China? Gregory R. Copley via Defense and Foreign Affairs