Mike Norman Economics

As the public scrutiny of the body of work we now refer to as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) widens there is a lot of misinformation abroad that distorts or otherwise undermines what has been done to date. Most, but not all the misinformation or emphasis comes from those who attack our work. Their criticisms usually disclose an incomplete understanding of where MMT came from and what the core propositions and logic are. They stylise, usually using terms and constructs that are present in...

New research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fuelling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared. Based on known cases, health officials have said the virus usually causes mild or moderate flu-like illness. The Canary - Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms

In the early weeks when the virus emerged in Wuhan, the Chinese government neither suppressed evidence nor did their warning systems fail.  How China learned about SARS-CoV-2 in the weeks before the global pandemic

A balanced look at China and why the Chinese rejected liberalism, at least for now. It goes into all that is wrong with China, but explains why the Chinese people still prefer it to what they had before.After the British wrecked China, which left it run amok with warlords, causing great hardship and famines, the Chinese wanted law and order and a strong government. They are happy with the government because of the peace and prosperity it has brought so far.Why do so many people feel that the...

For a month I argued with the climate change deniers and I learnt an incredible amount about the subject. I lost interest in the climate change deniers when I realised they were sockpuppets who knew that climate change science was right, but they just loved being contrarians.Now it seems I'm at war with the anti-vaxxers, covid-19 conspiracy theorists, who say it's nothing, and the Bill Gates conspiracy theorists. Many of these people are on the left, like Whitney Webb, who has done a couple...

I’d still go with this article by Ed Yong, which covers biology, epidemiology, medicine, and politics. Here’s one bit: Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social ScienceThe best coronavirus summary so farAndrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University

Positive article.Financial TimesStephanie Kelton: ‘They’re going to have massive deficits. And it’s fine’ Brendan Greeley

Interview with CRISPR co-inventor... I've watched some interviews with Dr. Doudna   ... what I noticed is that she doesnt use the word "find" at all... as in she is not trying to "find" something... she seems to be instead proceeding with purpose... non-Darwinian... [embedded content]

Whoa.... W....T....F....O....[embedded content]

Here we go again... A prominent Israeli mathematician, analyst and former general claims simple statistical analysis demonstrates that the spread of COVID-19 peaks after about 40 days and declines to almost zero after 70 days — no matter where it strikes, and no matter what measures governments impose to try to thwart it. Yeah but apex at what absolute number of acute?  and can you then accommodate that?This is like the debt doomsday morons always bitching about "debt as a % of GDP!".......