Mike Norman Economics

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, the US Congress appropriated a whopping $2 trillion budget to tackle it (about 10% of GDP). The focus was on expanded unemployment benefits and cash assistance to families, as well as grants and loans to small firms and large corporations in hopes that they will halt the torrent of layoffs. Across the ocean, Denmark took a different approach. The Danish government announced that it would cover 75–90% of certain worker salaries for the next 3 months....

After the 2008 financial crisis, we learned the hard way what happens when governments flood the economy with unconditional liquidity, rather than laying the foundation for a sustainable and inclusive recovery. Now that an even more severe crisis is underway, we must not repeat the same mistake.... Project Syndicate Capitalism’s Triple CrisisMariana Mazzucato | RM Phillips chair in the Economics of Innovation at SPRU in the University of Sussex

Americans consume the most toilet paper in the world but it's a very wasteful product to manufacture, according to the numbers. Toilet paper consumption is unsustainable and requires a tremendous amount of resources to produce. Americans use the most toilet paper in the world and have been hoarding it due to coronavirus. Alternatives to toilet paper are gaining more popularity with the public. I was going to plumb in a bidet as it's dead easy to do, but some guy on Amazon said his...

Yves Smith: I think Modern Monetary Theory proponents have made acceptance of their ideas a bit more difficult by not drawing a bright line between their theory, which is a description of how government spending works in a fiat currency system, versus what they believe are resulting sound policy approaches, such as setting the price of labor (a Job Guarantee) rather than the price of money. Some folks seem slow on the uptake. How loud to MMT economists need to shout? (shakes head) Why...

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has been gaining more attention in Australia in recent weeks. I have been shifting my face-to-face speaking commitments slowly to on-line presentations. I will be announcing more systematic MMTed classes beginning via the Internet soon. And I will do some Live Youtube presentations as well. Last week, the well-known financial market journalist Alan Kohler used his weekly column in The Australian newspaper to discuss MMT – It’s Modern Monetary Theory time as the...

“The white-haired Republicans seemed to delight in breaking the new rules,” Coppins writes. “They made a show of shaking hands, and complained loudly about the ‘stupid hoax’ being propagated by virus alarmists. When their tee times were up, they piled defiantly into golf carts, shoulder to shoulder, and sped off toward the first hole.” Raw Story Some Trump supporters ‘delight’ in defying pandemic protocols to stick it to liberals: report

Mitchell Feierstein has always come across as a bit of a libertarian to me, but here he says that in real capitalism some worker's rights and protection, and a social safety net are necessary. I still think I prefer the Scandinavian model, none the less.All those free market entrepreneurs who shouted that private was best - neoliberalism - and now running to the government begging for bail-outs. Now they want benefits and welfare to help them out during the hard times, and yet they always...

What a bunch of duplicitous and dishonest pieces of garbage these people are...How many months have we been told that they had to increase the Reserve Assets at the Depositories with all the "repo!" BS ever since September...  covering up their incompetence where they had a requirement of 10% of Deposits and Deposits were $13T so they reduced THEIR OWN RESERVE balances below $1.3T and created a Reserve deficiency...So they go for months trying to create this big smokescreen about...

I thought myself the other day that it is now time to get all the money owed us out of the tax havens. There might be enough to save the economy, and ultimately, the businesses of the elite too, as the ordinary guy is too maxed out to find the money.In contrast, Putin has settled on a more rational and compassionate plan. He’s going to launch a relief program that actually focuses on the people who need it the most. Then, he’s going to cover the costs by taxing the people who are most...

A consumer psychologist breaks down COVID-19 panic buying: https://t.co/Go8aA9GvTb pic.twitter.com/SvKkjaAwcb— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) March 30, 2020