Mike Norman Economics

The arms race is on. And further reason for Russia and China to enter into a closer military alliance to counter the US and its allies. The world is splitting economically, politically and militarily into opposing camps again, which is doubly dangerous in difficult economic times. Liberal globalization is on hold for the foreseeable future, as the rivalry between liberalism and traditionalism heats up. India PunchlineRussia, China won’t accept US nuclear superiority M. K. Bhadrakumar |...

When it comes to thinking about which economic sectors and industry niches that consume the most energy, cryptocurrencies may not immediately come to mind. But for some of these crypto companies, their energy and carbon footprints are not just considerable, they’re massive. The most famous example, Bitcoin, has an annual energy footprint slightly larger than the entire nation of Switzerland. The company’s current energy consumption can be tracked here. Last year, the University of...

Strongly suggests that Chinese policy makers are not on board with the MMT approach and are resistant to it because (neoliberal) "fiscal discipline." So much the worse for China.CaixanBlog: Chinese Economists Clash Over Monetization of Fiscal Deficit, Special Treasury Bonds Zhang Qizhi and Gavin Cross

Kalecki made the mistake of writing in Polish. Otherwise, we would be talking about Kaleckianism rather than Keynesianism.The Case for Concerted ActionJoan Robinson On Michal Kalecki’s Claim To PriorityV. Ramanan

Car giant was already saddled with debt before COVID-19 struck. Anomaly, or indication of systemic risk owing to debt?Just the NewsCar rental giant Hertz files for bankruptcy as its vehicles remain idled by pandemic John SolomonSee alsoIt's not just a matter of reopening. Will the customers be there?BBCCoronavirus: Leading economist warns of 10 years of depression and debt Karishma Vaswani interview with Nouriel Roubini

Mitchell, Wray and Watts Macroeconomics p 323, give a the correct version of the #MMT position on budget aggregates .... John Quiggin's BlogMWW on MMT (from Twitter via Spooler)John Quiggin | Professor and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the Australian Government

Yield curve control -- setting bond yields by the central bank -- has returned to discussion. Mainstream economics over-emphasises the role of interest rates in guiding the economy, and based on previous experience, it seems entirely likely that some form of new policy will be attempted to counter-act economic weakness. The main options appear to be negative interest rates and yield curve control, and it seems clear that Fed officials prefer yield curve control to negative rates, Yield...

Short-term indicators overbought. Only modest signs of economic pickup.

Economic historians may date the start of the Asian century to May 2020, when most Asian economies bounced back to full employment while the West languished in coronavirus lockdown. Asia has emerged as an economic zone as closely integrated as the European Union, increasingly insulated from economic shocks from the United States or Europe....  Asia TimesAsian century began in May 2020David P. Goldman

Trump goes full Reagan.Apparently the US doesn't realize that the real cost is in terms of real resources rather than units of account for countries that issue their own currencies. Or maybe it does and wants to force China to drop its dollar peg like Russia.Whatever, it's nutty. Kind of like declaring that the US is staying in Syria to create a quagmire for Russia.Where are the grownups?Oh, and did I mention that the latest talking point is the Social Security is running out of funding...