Mike Norman Economics

I don't know how to copy tweets along with their photos and videos yet, but here is a text copy of a Branko Milanovic tweet.It's sometimes said that Branko is very pro free markets and doesnt like socialism, hmmm!  I went for a scan recently and I said I to the receptionist that I had forgotten the paperwork. The centre was a 15 minute walk away from where I lived. The receptionist said it doesn't matter and just asked for my name and address and then told me to take a seat. Within ten...

I am often asked, after my talks or on social media, to pass a judgment on the stability, or lack of it, of a particular country. For example, looking across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom, one sees a lot of parallels with the crisis we are currently living through in the US. The rise of populism, increasing fragmentation of the political landscape—do these similarities reflect deep structural trends below the surface? Such questions can only be answered with a proper...

Applying MMT in the EZ. The likely growth slowdown in the euro area in the coming quarters will be the trigger for this new phase of expansionist fiscal policy. However, uncertainty remains as to the scale and the implementation of the stimulus. If it is up to member countries, the stimulus is likely to be under-supplied as many governments will have little incentive to do much. Europe will face the same free-rider problem as in the past, with countries patiently waiting to benefit from...

Gerd Gigerenzer takes aim at Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein for being uncritical and going too far. While not endorsing rational choice theory, he stresses that the truth lies between the extremes of rationality and irrationality and claims behavioral economics tends to over emphasize irrationality consequent on cognitive-effective bias. It's neither reason or all bias, either all or mostly, but a combination of rationality and irrationality.Statistical Modeling, Causal...

An excellent summery of how it all went wrong in the US. It tackles everything from unions, feminism, to race relations, and how the CIA infiltrated these groups to divide and rule.After the New Deal, the industrialists decided to destroy the unions, and during the Mccarthy period the unions were made to throw out their socialists and communists believing the propaganda that the best way out of poverty was the American Dream. As a result, the elite were able to keep wages low and offshore...

France on Thursday became the first major economy to impose a tax on digital giants, with parliament passing the legislation in defiance of a probe ordered by President Donald Trump that could trigger reprisal tariffs.The new law aims at plugging a taxation gap that has seen some internet heavyweights paying next to nothing in countries where they make huge profits. Asia TimesFrance passes law to tax digital giants Hazel Ward

Falling aggregate profit rate? As James Montier, the post-Keynesian economist at GMO, the large asset fund manager, points out, real earnings growth in the corporate sector has been below the rate of real GDP growth even after the significant boost from the financial engineering from share buybacks. According to Montier, when you dig down into the market you find that a staggering 25-30 per cent of firms are actually making a loss. In Montier’s view, “the US is witnessing the rise of the...

A superb interview with Norman Finkelstein. [embedded content] Despite the propaganda Labour leads in the polls. The establishment must be getting worried.Chunky Mark - ‪Oh my god!!!, OH MY GOD!!!!!!‬ ‪Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour are a massive 6pts clear in the Polls [embedded content]

Cut below from the H.8 highlighting nsa Urealized Gains on Available for Sale Securities have already turned positive during the current debt ceiling induced bond rally.If Fed reduces the policy rate this month/year then this gain should perhaps increase an additional 10s of $B based on the magnitude of last year losses you can see here when Fed was doing a quarterly series of 0.25% increases.Rate cuts this year should have perhaps the opposite effect and then we can observe the changes...

Philip Geraldi says he's a conservative, but listen to him talk and he doesn't sound any different to me.He says that 'trickle down' doesn't work because the money goes offshore and not into the local economy, and he says how the elites have captured our governments and don't pay their taxes.He says how George Soros has taken over western governments, and how his NGO's have changed the governments in Eastern Europe too so they do as he wants.Many politicians are not interested in democracy...