Mike Norman Economics

Arvin Ash Says if we ever produce a quantum computer then we have to take the parallel universe theory seriously. Well, Google are on the verve of developing one.Alvin says physicists have worked out the size of our universe from the amount of marter there is, but the universe may be much bigger, extending without matter into infinity. But if it is infinite, then matter will eventually turn up again, and again, and again for infinity too.Now there are only so many ways you can combine all...

Shaun Scott is a DSA member running for Seattle City Council. We talked to him about his bold platform: building public housing, taxing the rich, and pushing for a municipal Green New Deal. A job guarantee (universal job offer to fit the applicant to the work) is only one piece of the pie to right the ship of the economy. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN General Assembly, all persons have a right to work (article 23), a right to leisure (article 24) and a...

China’s economy grew by 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2019, the lowest figure since records began in March 1992, but other data for June better than expected While this falls within Beijing’s GDP target for the year of between 6 to 6.5 per cent, it also shows the pressure the economy is under with the US trade war ongoing More wishful thinking. The Western media give the impression that the China economy is in decline when it's still sizzling growth moderated slightly and one...

Hotel Mount Washington where the Betton Woods Conference was held in 1944. Bretton Woods is the name of the town in New Hampshire.Global MonitorThe Bear On The Balcony At Bretton Woods

Professor Guy Standing was invited to speak to a group of leading Silicon Valley executives and they listened taking lots of notes. At the end of the speech a famous multi-billionaire got up and said he agreed with him.Guy Standing explains how the patent system is being abused creating rents for the One Percent and stifling competition.He also explains how privatisation has failed the public. [embedded content] There are three fundamental issues that lie at the heart of our current...

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...