Mike Norman Economics

Okay, at the risk of not getting included in the happy consensus, I will make a few points here. My thoughts exactly. Tackling China is just plain crazy, especially when the US was benefitting in real terms of trade and China was still willing to save in USD. Those days are nearly over for the US and hopefully the newly rising China will overlook a century or so of humiliation, including the latest episode. As Dean Baker points out, intellectual property has become a bug rather than a...

As the FT reported a couple of days ago when discussing corporation tax and corporate accountability: Now the Global Reporting Initiative, a not-for-profit setter of sustainability standards, is seeking to enhance transparency in this area. In a new standard it is calling for improved disclosure of corporate tax strategy, explanation of the reasons why the tax charge in financial accounts falls short of statutory headline tax rates, and country-by-country reporting of business activities,...

When I was a relatively junior academic, one of the things I was interested in was how labour market prejudice is influenced by the state of the economic cycle. This was a period when Australia was undergoing a deep recession (early 1990s) and it was clear that hostility to immigrants had risen during this period. I was interested to see whether this was related. The interest goes back to my postgraduate days when I was studying labour economics and we considered labour market...

Only through action can we expect to achieve

In this video Prof Ian Stewart explains how the fossil fuel companies managed to dupe some of the public into believing that climate change is not a problem, or is even occurring. They learnt the trick from the cigarette and pharmaceutical companies.First of all, back in the 60's, scientists started warning about climate change and politicians took it seriously. The fossil fuel companies got concerned about it, though, but many economists accepted the theory, but added that the increased...

Trump deranged Dems back on the whole "Russia!" thing again...Is it Putin or Plutin...I cannot keep it straight...? https://t.co/3D1xzYwl2f— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) January 16, 2020

It also marked the second-warmest year ever. “What happens in the future is really up to us," said one scientist. I've got one wheel on my wagonAnd I'm still rolling alongThe Climate Deniers are after meI'm all in flamesAt the reinsBut I'm singing a happy song!  The past decade was the hottest ever recorded on the planet, driven by an acceleration of temperature increases in the past five years, according to new data released Wednesday by the U.S. government. The findings,...

ABC News (Australia) (ah, the irony)Iran and the US are now trading barbs on China’s Weibo amid censorship on other platforms Alan Weedon and Kai FengEconForecastThe EIA Is Grossly Overestimating U.S. Shale Dian L. Chu Anti-Empire“Tariff Man” Is Presiding Over the Biggest Contraction in US Manufacturing in 10 Years Frank E. Holmes Mish Talk — Money Maven (will Trump go after Airbus?)Orders at Boeing Drop to a 16-Year Low Michael "Mish" Shedlock Fort Russ News (Putin's move to liberalize...

In a recent report, we revealed the outrageously widening income and wealth gap and sinking standards of living in the United States. In reality, the situation with income and wealth inequality and stagnating wages could be yet much worse, because there are obvious problems with the official inflation figures, which are designed by the government to understate actual prices increases. To start with the inflation measure employed by the Federal Reserve (CPI) is a broad average purporting to...