Mike Norman Economics

Steve Keen says do away with economists and a modern ecomomy will run perfectly well without them, but you couldn't do away with engineers or scientists. Spot on!It will come as no surprise that a recent poll indicated that economists are amongst the least trusted professionals. They've made blundering mistakes on everything from claiming financial crises can happen to not facing the most obvious recessions. But all that pales into insignificance when inept economists get involved in...

During my recent trip to Japan, where I made several presentations to various groups, including a large gathering in the Japanese Diet (Parliament), I received a lot of press interest, which is a good sign. I am slowly putting together the translated versions of some of the print media articles. Today, I provide a translation (with my annotations) of an interview I did with the centre-left newspaper – Asahi Shimbun – on November 6, 2019 in Tokyo. This is a daily newspaper and is one of the...

Fort Russ NewsRussian intelligence: Events in Bolivia is an attempt to destabilize Latin America Paul Antonopoulos India PunchlineBereft of soft power, India stands diminished in Hindu Kush and Central Asia M. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service Intel TodayDouma Attack — Internal OPCW E-Mail Reveals Crucial Omissions Ludwig De Braeckeleer RT‘Window is closing’: US Senate makes last-ditch effort to ax Nord Stream 2 pipeline Sputnik InternationalEvolution of...

Another good one from Paul Mason. [embedded content]

This is simply hilarious!A trip to Ashfield in Nottinghamshire to meet controversial Conservative candidate Lee Anderson takes a bizarre turn when Michael Crick exposes a fake-news ruse – thanks to a switched-on microphone.Daily MailCaught in the act! How ‘hot mic’ exposed would-be MP’s fake news ruse

Research based on studies by Greenwich University has revealed public ownership of services such as broadband, buses, energy and NHS could save billions for the tax payer New polls suggest the Tories have a 19% lead. Labour is offering a really good deal, but many voters reject it, why? For one thing, it is the anti-Labour bias in most of the media, and also people have been told we can't afford it, although Labour's spending plans are only midway compared to the rest of Western...

An interesting and spiritual one for Sunday.Physics is getting weirder!I don't know much about the science in Galileo's time, but he said there was no light, colour, or taste, and that all of these experiences were created in the mind.  Electromagnetic waves leave the Sun, bounce off objects, and our brains create the images and colours we see.  If a tree fell down in a forest and there was no one around, would it make a noise? Our brains produce all these experiences, but what if it also...

The first part of the post is about Tunisia, and the second is specifically about MMT. MMT economist Fadhel Kaboub is originally from Tunisia and is familiar with the situation there. Rosa Luxemburg StiftungModern Monetary Theory: A Tool for the Global South?Fadil Aliriza, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Tunisian news portal Meshkal, in conversation with Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, associate professor of economics at Denison University and president of The Global Institute for Sustainable...

In terms of the the general case concerning contemporary banking, the basic constraint on lending, by which banks create "money"* by crediting deposit accounts (bank liability) and debiting loan accounts (bank asset), is the availability of creditworthy borrowers. This population is flexible based on, financial and economic conditions, bank credit standards, and government policy and regulation. All of these may change over the cycle. Price of assets rise to the degree that banks are...

Hydrogen has been dubbed ‘the fuel of the future’ but thanks to our scientists, that future could be much sooner than we think. We’ve created a metal membrane that filters out pure hydrogen gas from ammonia. It can then be dispensed into fuel cell cars, buses and even trucks. And the technology isn’t just fantasy, we recently powered fuel cell electric vehicles using locally-produced ultra-high purity hydrogen. And now the technology is being commercialised via a partnership with Fortescue...