Mike Norman Economics

Disproving the belief that the pandemic affects us all equally, data collected by New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and a piece published today in the New York Times shows that the novel coronavirus is “hitting low-income neighborhoods the hardest.”[1] In a forthcoming policy brief, we share evidence that this pattern would be the case and provide a solid explanation as to why (Nassif-Pires et al., forthcoming). Moreover, as we argue, the death tolls are also likely to...

Will Oremus has written an interesting article "What Everyone's Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage." The key takeaway is that it is not all about hoarding or even inventory building, it is also a consumption shift. His source from inside the industry gave a guesstimate that 40% of toilet paper is for commercial buildings. With the shutdown in activity, that commercial usage is moving to houses. The problem is straightforward: commercial toilet paper is a completely different...

Monetary policy run amok. These charts will blow your mind. Use MMT to invest and trade. Get a 30 day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/mmt-trader/?s2-ssl=yes/

The U.S has potentially entered the Age of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with the deficit-busting stimulus bill, which would follow the two previous political/economic paradigm shifts, the Age of FDR/Keynes from 1932 to 1980, and the Age of Reagan/Friedman from 1980 to 2008. It’s just that most Americans haven’t even heard of MMT yet, but that could change very quickly if Sanders starts mentioning it,... If Sanders does so, he may still have the very belated chance to lead the historic...

JS: What are those concepts? What do we need for groups to be more kind, helpful, and cooperative? PA: There are eight design principles in our book that help groups to act more cooperatively [for the common good]. Greater Good MagazineHow Can We Cooperate When the Pandemic Is Driving Us Apart? Jill Suttie interviews Paul Atkins, coauthor of the new book Prosocial: Using Evolutionary Science to Build Productive, Equitable, and Collaborative Groups.

The recently passed $2.1 trillion stimulus proves that Congress has always had the power to fund big spending packages, without worrying about how to offset the costs. That is according to Modern Monetary Theory, an economic school of thought that’s been gaining prominence in recent years, including among rising progressive political stars like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Stephanie Kelton Stephanie Kelton, Modern Monetary Theory’s most prominent advocate, spoke to Capital &...

Marx tends to get all the credit and garners of the opprobrium, too. But Engles also made significant contributions, both to Marx's thinking and also in his own right. He did a lot more than pay Marx's bills so he had freedom to do research and write. Michael Roberts points out that Marx and Engels also were ecological economists and environmental economists as well as classical economists analyzing economic rent and rent-extraction as the basis of capitalism in a way similar to...

Previously Marxian Chris Dillow goes full-on Marxist. Time to change the material conditions of production. This is a moral argument in addition to being an economic one. Capital had its chance twice. The first time it failed was in the global financial crisis, which lead to obscene levels of "inequality" (read funneling ownership and control of real and financial resources to the top). Now, there is systemic failure that threatens civilizational collapse, with the current pandemic only...

Last Thursday (March 26, 2020), the European Council met to discuss the way in which the European Union would deal with the coronavirus crisis. Not much happened. Well that is not exactly true. A lot happened in the sense that even when faced with the worst health crisis in a century that is already devastating the populations in Italy and Spain and creating economic havoc throughout, the leadership split along familiar lines and failed to come up with any solution. There was a lot of talk...

I thought this was excellent. Dr Michael Greger is a vegan and has no ties to any companies. Here he talks about the benefits of flax seeds.Apparently, one tablespoon of flax seed a day is all that is needed, but you should grind it or buy it split as it will just pass through the body otherwise. It seems to have powerful anti-inflammatory effects, and it can lower blood pressure as well as drugs do but without side effects. [embedded content] Should we be concerned about the cyanide in flax...