Mike Norman Economics

It will help keep the economy going, so it's good for the wealthy too, like Jeff Bezos, so if would have been nice if Amazon had paid its fair share of tax. But this could save many businesses.The Emergency Money for the People Act, introduced by Reps. Tim Ryan and Ro Khanna, would give $2,000 a month to Americans over the age of 16 who make less than $130,000 a year. The payments would count zz_inue for at least six months and would last until unemployment falls to pre-coronavirus...

Ray McGovernAG Barr just signaled that things are about to get ugly for the Russia collusion team Strategic Culture FoundationHow to Get Rid of a POTUS John Quincy Adams Strategic Culture FoundationA Tiny Indicator of a Big Disruption Patrick Armstrong The Vineyard of the SakerAmerica’s rigged democracy: The oligarch takeover of America’s political system John Hellevig Zero HedgePrivate Army: Mark Zuckerberg's Security Cost Facebook A Whopping $23 Million Last Year Tyler Durden Zero...

The tragic situation in Italy depicts the insufficiency of the public health system to manage an extensive crisis. This is not an unexpected phenomenon. The capitalist system and its governments all over the world treat healthcare for the public as a cost that can only be provided at a basic level. The development of a high-level public health system needs a high percentage of funding from the government and bumps the profits of the capitalists. Furthermore, the example of Italy highlights...

Summers and Brown redeeming themselves.Project SyndicateDebt Relief Is the Most Effective Pandemic AidGordon Brown, former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, now United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, and Chair the Advisory Board of the Catalyst Foundation; and Lawrence H. Summers, US Secretary of the Treasury (1999-2001) and Director of the US National Economic...

I am going to break a rule and link to this at the New York Times because it is noteworthy owing to its implicit support of MMT. The New York Times is "the paper of record" so this is a big deal.But aware that you may encounter a paywall. I don't usually link to paywalled sources.New York TimesHow the Government Pulls Coronavirus Relief Money Out of Thin Air Matt Phillips

The International Monetary Fund wants policy makers to avoid repeating the Depression-era mistake of ratcheting back budget deficits. Instead, it’s urging them to ramp up fiscal stimulus when the coronavirus contagion starts to abate.…  This doesn’t sound all that different from the prescription of Modern Monetary Theory proponents -– a heterodox economic school that contends countries such as the U.S. can run bigger budget shortfalls without worrying about going broke because they print...

Important.Here are a couple of tidbits. Together, China and Russia have an eight-to-one advantage over the United States in engineering graduates.... Pumping them out. In addition, high school and undergrad STEM education in Russia, China, and some other countries, including Iran, is more advanced than the US. The US faces a steep uphill climb to compete. It’s important to remember that every single invention of the digital age, from the microchip to the semiconductor laser, to the graphic...

Neoliberals are lining up another round of futile austerity for the post coronavirus world - hitting the low-paid, senior citizens  and the vulnerable. Austerity is in their DNA and people must say no.  Remember the last banking crash, caused by reckless risk-taking, fraud and speculation by banks? The UK government bailed them out by providing guarantees and cash outlays of £1,162bn and quantitative easing of another £435bn. Very few bankers faced any retribution. Instead, the government...

It’s Wednesday, and a quiet day for writing blog posts for me. But I want to comment briefly on the latest economic news that sees the IMF claiming the Australian economy will contract by 6.7 per cent in 2020 and the Treasury estimates that the unemployment rate will rise to 10 per cent (double) by June this year. While this all sounds shocking, the emerging narrative in the media and among politicians is that this is sort of inevitable given the health crisis and the Government’s Job...

I wash my keys, wallet, credit cards and phone when I get back from the shops, as well as the food and door handles, etc. Dr John Campbell says he washes his phone as much as he does his hands.C-19 can be partially aerosolized for up to 3 hours before it falls to the floor.I have a fridge engineer coming around this Monday which I'm not looking forward too, but he will be wearing a mask and gloves, they told me. I will wait three hours after he has left and then wash the whole kitchen down....