Mike Norman Economics

How should we measure inequality? There are two metrics that economists use: relative and absolute. In the past I have argued that the relative metric – which is by far the dominant approach, embodied in the standard Gini index, in the famous “elephant graph”, and inlogarithmic distribution graphs – is problematic in that it is aligned with the interests and perspectives of the rich, and effectively obscures real inequalities in the distribution of new income around the world. From the...

Okay, living in the medieval times was no picnic, but they did have loads of leisure time. I read how craftsmen would only work for a few weeks when they had run out of money, and when they had earned enough, they would go back to a leisurely life. No fifty to sixty hours plus a week for them. No looking out of the window and dreaming of getting home, or doing something far more interesting, or having plenty of time to be with friends and family, or just going fishing.With all the machinary,...

A new world is emerging, in which it will be much harder to separate economics from geopolitics. It’s not the world according to Myrdal, Frank, and Perroux, and it’s not Tom Friedman’s flat world, either. It’s the world according to Game of Thrones. Naked CapitalismFarewell, Flat World  Jean Pisani-Ferry | Tommaso Padoa Schioppa chair of the European University Institute in Florence and is Senior Fellow at Bruegel.  Cross-posted from Bruegel

[embedded content] In downtown Tegucigalpa, average Hondurans told The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal that the US-backed Juan Orlando Hernández government is a "dictatorship" that is destroying their lives and forcing many to immigrate.

The simple fact is that the Green New Deal and profit maximisation are incompatible with each other, and this is of massive importance and is an issue that cannot be ducked if the Green New Deal is to work. This is the idea behind my work on what I call sustainable cost accounting (SCA). The core idea within SCA is that existing accounts treat the supply of finance as the constraint on corporate activity and as such the return to financial capital is considered to be the focus of financial...

Lesson in economic history. Podcast and transcript.Socialist AppealFreedom and slavery: the birth of capital Josh Holroyd

When going bankrupt it starts off slowly and then it happens very quickly. Author and businessman, Mark Brooks, says this is happening to the Western narrative right now as the propaganda has become so outlandish that lots of people are beginning to cotton on to the lies, and like the Emperor's New Clothes, the masses are about to realise it too. It's already happening in France. If you like what you read here at MNE's, then this is essential viewing. Don't miss it! [embedded content]...

Chimerica decoupling.Zero HedgeChinese Investments In US Grind To Halt, Trade War BlamedTyler Durden

At his first White House performance with other senior officials of the incoming Reagan administration, freshly appointed (but veteran covert action operative) intelligence chief William Casey told President Reagan and the others assembled:“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Hard to believe? Read below what an eye-witness has attested to: “I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director William...

The head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, identified the problems that create risks for the successful implementation of national projects and the achievement of sustainable economic growth, at the International Financial Congress on Thursday. "This year, the government has begun implementing national projects that are designed to remove structural constraints. These projects, involving investments in education, health care, and infrastructure, should be worked out with effective...