Mike Norman Economics

It’s Wednesday and so I have a few items to discuss followed by some music. Many readers have E-mailed me asking about last week’s decision by the OPEC+ cartel to cut production of crude oil by 1.66 million barrels per day. Taken together with the previous cuts (2 millions barrels per day) in October, this pushed the price of oil up within a day or so back over $US80 per day. Many commentators immediately announced this would drive inflation back up and force central banks to go harder on...

As a further comment on “funded” public pensions (link to previous note), I just want to comment on the side effects of such “funding.” (To recap, a central government could create fictitious bonds to match “pension contributions,” which has the same cash flows as a pure “pay-as-you-go” scheme. The alternative Canada has switched towards is to buy financial assets with the “pension contributions” — although some of those assets would be reinvested in bonds guaranteed by the Government of...

Forget tax drains, if they don't raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. will become the next Greece. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.mmteconomics.com/ Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman Mike Norman Economics: https://www.pitbulleconomics.com Understanding the Daily Treasury Statement video course. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/understanding-daily-treasury-statement-video-course/?s2-ssl=yes

Uncharted territory that doesn't look friendly for the West.India PunchlineOPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymoreM.K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service and former ambassador. See alsoThe CradleSaudi Arabia makes its Eurasian shiftAgha HussainAlsoRT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)More countries may join oil production cut – Moscow

The article attempts to show how the US has had an anti-competitive stance for almost a century and in particular since WWII. China is now in the crosshairs of it.This analysis also suggests how the US is reducing the competitiveness of the EU/EZ similarly. The EU was founded on the realization that European countries could only compete with the US by forming an economic bloc. This is a short article with documentation rather than a blog post.MR OnlineThe U.S. is trying to persuade China to...

There’s a reason why the old adage on Wall Street is “Sell in May and go away.” It’s because financial balances are drained I April by taxes.

Breakups are tough.

India aims to consolidate its emerging leadership in the Global South, which explains the priority focus that’s now being given to internationalizing the rupee. Upon making significant progress on this, it’ll then be able to function as an independent pole of economic influence across Afro-Eurasia, taking full advantage of its geostrategic location to accelerate South-South integration processes.De-dollarization is the top financial trend of this decade, but it concerns much more than just...

Gives new meaning to the term, "welfare state."Zero HedgeNATO Chief Wants Allies to Pledge Half-Billion Yearly To UkraineTyler Durden

Non-MMT and pro-Russia but the analysis contains a lot of numbers and other information that sets the record straight about comparing economies. Although it doesn't mention it, the CIA regards PPP as a more accurate measure than NGDP in assessing national capability as a measure of power.Simplicius, The Thinker used to publish sitreps on the conflict in Ukraine at The Saker as Nightvision. The Saker blog is no longer operational. Now he publishes at Substack. Simplicius, The ThinkerThe Truth...