Mike Norman Economics

Whaaaaaaaattttttt??????? If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar...

The Fed's swap lines ballooned by $206 BILLION last week. Biggest increase ever and highest level in 11 years. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. Use MMT concepts to invest and trade. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/mmt-trader/?s2-ssl=yes/

The American Economic Liberties Project (my org) put out a statement against the bill, AFL-CIO official Damon Silvers, who oversaw the 2008 bailout, put out an article against the bill, as did dozens of economics and finance professors. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned of the risks of a bill tilted to big business, as did libertarian member Justin Amash. John Cassidy wrote in the New Yorker how to do a bailout without corruption. And Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin...

The United States is not only in the grips of a COVID-19 crisis that threatens to derail the economy and potentially take millions of lives. It is also suffering from a president who is deeply suspicious of expertise and of governance generally.... In my view, the second sentence should read, "Americans that are deeply suspicious of expertise and of governance generally elected a president that shares this view. Blaming government policy on the president rather than the political process is...

Economic Lessons for 2020: A Conversation with Dr. Michael HudsonPeoples Forum, December 12, 2019. Michael Hudson re-posted this today on his site.Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of NeoliberalismPeople’s Forum: Economic Lessons for 2020 Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest...

Major developments across the globe in monetary and fiscal policy keep happening on a daily basis at present. We are now hearing conservatives, who previously made careers out of claims that government deficits would send nations broke and more, appearing in the media now claiming “We need the state to bail out the entire nation”. Not too many economists are pushing the line that the market will deal with this crisis. They all the want the state to be front and centre as their own personal...

New test may be soon available...This could be huge. Within days, the UK is readying roll out millions of tests that can tell whether you have had the virus (by checking for antibodies). Will be delivered by Amazon or available for "minimal" cost from pharmacies. https://t.co/vVCwT5cb79— Akshat Rathi (@AkshatRathi) March 25, 2020

Morons:  "Fed can just run negative equity!"Wrong.... Watch Chair Powell on the @TODAYshow: https://t.co/doaDYcIRIa — Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) March 26, 2020

I recently said on Twitter that regulations would might be better than a carbon tax, but as soon as I tweeted it I wondered how easy would that be to implement worldwide and whether a tax might work better?This article addresses that question.Why not just use regulations instead of taxes, like mileage standards for cars? Economists know regulation is complicated. Regulations by nature have to sort between what is a target and what isn’t. The regulatory process contains numerous opportunities...

Zero Hedge [booze, too]Six States Declare Marijuana Dispensaries "Essential Businesses", Exempting Them From LockdownTyler DurdenThe Intercept Gilead Sciences Backs Off Monopoly Claim for Promising Coronavirus DrugSharon Lerner The Vineyard of the SakerUS in panic to obtain the Coronavirus vaccineRuslan Ostashko, Translated by Scott RTOver ONE THIRD of world’s population under lockdown over Covid-19 – AFP tally Paul Craig Roberts [we pretty much knew this already, this study confirms...