Mike Norman Economics

One of my presentations are the January Sustainability Conference in Adelaide focused on the basics of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). I was asked by the organisers to provide some clarity on the basics of MMT and to demarcate where MMT starts and finishes. I started the first of two talks I gave at that conference by stating that MMT was macroeconomics. It is within that discipline. It is not within the discipline of law, sociology, psychology, cultural and media studies etc. Macro is macro....

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Since I've got into twitter I have politics coming out of my ears, so I hope you don't mind the diversions. The Northern Soul dancers liked to wear baggy flared trousers which went high up the waist. I always thought break-dancing was an American 80's phenomenon, but in the North of England the British were doing something similar in the 70's. It all started in a small dance club in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester. It was called The Wigan Casino, and the dance scene it inspired came...

When Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders there was an outcry from the liberals. They said Joe Rogan was very politically incorrect and a bad guy and that Bernie should reject his enforcement. In this video Jimmy Dore calls out this phoney outrage,  which is just dirty politics, as usual. [embedded content]

But new research investigating the future costs of dealing with a warming planet shows just how counterintuitive that way of thinking actually is, because the longer we wait to take action, the more we're going to have to pay in the long run. According to the study's calculations, the cheapest option at this point is to pay what it takes to limit the global temperature rise over the next century to 2 degrees Celsius – the same number that governments committed to with the Paris Agreement....

I needed a CT scan on my neck — and I opened the door to a Kafka-esque nightmare Most libertarians have come from middle-class backgrounds and have no idea how frail they could become, or how hard life could get. Life events can suddenly change and terrifying chaos can take over. When we're down we need the collective, and when we're strong we can help others. Some very wealthy people feel extremely secure, and so argue that others should not rely on the collective either. Sadly, too many...

So much for rational agency based on autonomous preferences as viable assumption for a realistic economics. The world in which we live is socially constructed, which is hardly surprising since humans are social animals (homo socialis) more than economic animals (homo economicus). Most are crowd-followers behaving endogenously within the social system they inhabit rather than exogenous agents acting independently of the social system.Stumbling and MumblingOn socially influenced preferences...

I don't see how forcing newly created non-risk assets onto bank balance sheets is going to help correct a real hygiene problem...China’s central bank will inject CNY1.2 trillion (USD170 billion) in tomorrow’s open market operation, the bank said in a notice today. The move aims to provide sufficient liquidity for the financial system during the period of controlling the novel #coronavirus epidemic. pic.twitter.com/KQUUOCkd2i— Yicai Global 第一财经 (@yicaichina) February 2, 2020

Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has collected nearly 1.2 million tonnes of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The water is stored in huge tanks that crowd the site. The panel under the industry ministry came to the conclusion after narrowing the choice to either releasing the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean or letting it evaporate - and opted for the former, even though it...

Gee, even plants can hear! [embedded content]