Mike Norman Economics

Heavy on medical terminology but instructive.The Vineyard of the SakerHow to treat Coronavirus infection COVID-19 Interview with the member of Russian Academy of Science Alexander Chuchalin Translated by Scott HumorSee also Social distancing is a tool public health officials recommend to slow the spread of a disease that is being passed from person to person. Simply put, it means that people stay far enough away from each other so that the coronavirus - or any pathogen - cannot spread from...

Those of us who support Manning have been looking at this more as a fine on us than on her, because of course we were never going to let a heroic whistleblower spend the rest of her life under crushing debt. The fact that the money came together so quickly and easily, though, says a lot about the beauty of humans in my opinion.... Now there’s a much humbler task of raising funds for Manning’s living expenses, which is a GoFundMe for a trust of $30,000. This fundraiser is just hours old...

There has been major disruptions in Treasury market liquidity, with it being very difficult to sell off-the-run bonds. My initial reaction to these stories is that this is the typical complaining you get from people in any overly-specialised field when something slightly atypical happens. My argument is the worst case interpretation is that this is a reaction to one or major entities' balance sheets blowing sky high. Alternatively, this is just what happens when too many people take finance...

Get on that bike! Well, I spend three hours a day on my bike anyway.Fortunately, I like sleeping with all my windows open at night too as I'm unable to sleep otherwise, even in winter, especially as they are so mild nowadays. Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors. A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections among medical staff.[1] There is scientific...

Chinese officials say that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready for clinical trials and emergency situations next month according to press reports. Chinese coronavirus vaccine could be ready for trials next month

Transcript of an interview about Thomas Piketty's latest book,  Capital and Ideology.Fast CompanyThomas Piketty explains why the world is ripe for ‘participatory socialism’ Marcus Baram interviews Thomas Piketty

A little philosophy (value theory) today. Personally, I think it would be madness to stick a monetary value on people’s lives and base our policy choices on whether the dollars on one side of the ledger outweigh those on the other. I wrote a book about that a while ago. The considerations that lead us to think primarily in public health terms at a time like this apply just as well to other issues, from food safety to climate change. The economists who crank out monetary values of life...

According to this article the UK government strategy for dealing with the Coronavirus is not entirely clear, but it seems that the strategy is to allow the virus to spread slowly through the population so it can be handled more easily and not overload the hospitals. Jeremy Rossman, a virologist, believes this strategy is likely to be a disaster.Achieving herd immunity would require well over 47 million people to be infected in the UK. Current estimates are that COVID-19 has a 2.3%...

According to this article, subsidies to the fossil fuel industries provided the cheap energy which grew our economy so well for over a hundred years. They now say that fossil fuel companies no longer need the subsidies but renewables still do.Fact Sheet: Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal CostsFact Sheet: Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs

It's not a very cheery article. I've been optimistic about renewables and fusion, but Craig Collins isn't. The latent fear that civilization is living on borrowed time has also spawned a counter-market of “happily ever after” optimists who desperately cling to their belief in endless progress.  Popular Pollyannas, like cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, provide this anxious crowd with soothing assurances that the titanic ship of progress is unsinkable.  Pinker’s publications have made him...