Mike Norman Economics

Crack open an iPhone and you’ll begin to see why President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China doesn’t make sense. On paper, imports of the popular smartphone and other goods from China look like a big loss to the U.S. The president certainly thinks so and has often cited the massive U.S.-China bilateral trade deficit – US$420 billion in 2018 – as a reason to fight his trade war. When an iPhone X arrives in the U.S., it adds about $370 – its factory cost – to the deficit. All...

Jeremy Corbyn represents the only realistic chance the people of England and Wales have been given in decades, to escape from the neo-liberal economics that have impoverished vast swathes of the population. But he leads a parliamentary party which is almost entirely comprised of hardline neo-liberal adherents.The majority of the parliamentary Labour party are the people who brought in academy schools, high student tuition fees, PFI, who introduced more privatisation into the health service...

MMT.The WEEKThe 1 question journalists should stop asking 2020 Democrats Jeff Spross

By knowing when bank reserves peak and trough we can pinpoint tops and bottoms in the market with uncanny accuracy.

Facebook has led a consortium which has unveiled a white paper on a proposed Libra cryptocurrency. It is described as being backed by a multi-currency portfolio of government bonds, and so it might be looked at as a currency basket. I am not an expert on Libra, but I just wanted to comment on the pros and cons of such a basket for small online commerce players (such as BondEconomics.com). I also conclude with a short discussion of systemic risk posed by this platform.... Bond Economics ...

It is indeed strange since "money" as a unit of account is basic for quantitative measurement in economics and finance. Moreover, economic activity involving production, distribution and consumption of real good is dependent of finance in the creation of "money" in a monetary production economy. "Money" and finance are hidden assumptions in economics that constitute foundations of the framework for economic activity and therefore economics. They are for the most part unexamined, and...

This is my Wednesday blog post where I write less or perhaps research the blog post less – both of which save me time to do other things. Today a few snippets. One snippet looks at an article in Marketwatch – What Modern Monetary Theory gets ‘plain wrong,’ according to former IMF chief economist (June 11, 2019). This article should put to rest any claims that the mainstream New Keynesian macroeconomic consensus understands Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) or that MMT is somehow explainable...

Every time Amazon expands by 1% 8,000 other companies go out of business. Jeff Bezos keeps expanding into new areas which now includes business with the Pentagon. I didn't know this, but Amazon uses 'personal pricing ' and my immediate thought was that this was a discount for regular customers, but it's the opposite, in fact. If you regularly buy a product, Amazon may increase the price by 3%, so the price you see is not the one everyone else sees. And they might increase it again sometime...

Finally, a positive article on the GND and MMT among a barrage of negative ones.The Berkshire EagleEdward Lane: GND and Modern Monetary Policy Edward Lane, ASA, CFP, is an adjunct professor of Finance and Economics, University at Albany (SUNY)

Craig Murray raises some good points here.I don't know what to make of Trump either, but underneath Craig article I left a comment saying Trump maybe be a narcissist, but he's not a psychopath. And he even seems to like being loved, especially by his base, which gives him a bit of a human quality.His base says that Trump hates war. Well, who knows, but let's hope so. Although he did want to start a war with Venezuela, but that may have been another bluff. I say that with apologies to all my...