Mike Norman Economics

Should you be worried about the federal deficit? While campaigning, President Donald Trump followed in the footsteps of his conservative predecessors by fear-mongering about the ballooning deficit — but when he got to the White House that concern all but seemed to disappear when it came to his tax cuts for the rich and increased government spending. In fact, there’s a pattern to the Republicans’ selective concern about increasing the deficit, and it all depends on who holds the power. When...

“What's happening is that China is finally going global,” Richard Sakwa told The Real News Network’s Sharmini Peries. “[China] is leveraging its growing economic power into a network of relationships which are spanning not just Eurasia all the way to Europe, but also in Africa.” Sakwa noted that while China is now developing a second military base, the United States has approximately 600 military bases around the world: “China is challenging not so much U.S. primacy but the way that it has...

We get goods, China gets dollars. Nobody is getting ripped off.

Craig Murray alleges that Robert Mueller did not conduct an actual investigation. It was fixed from the start by Mueller's priors.Craig Murray BlogThe Real Muellergate ScandalCraig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

MMT economists have been saying that the government acting through its central bank has this power as currency monopolist to manage the yield curve in addition to setting the policy rate, if it chooses to use it.  What difference does this make? The 5 and 10 year rates serve as benchmarks for commercial lending. Since housing is such an integral part of the economy, mortgage rates are especially influential and it has been argued that central bank interest setting acts primarily through...

There's another element behind the market correction. It's temporary, but you should know what it is.

Economies are human constructs, not inevitable natural phenomena. Humans make up the rules that participants must follow when playing the game, and as the economy grows and evolves, humans must change the rules of play in ways that optimize the well-being of the majority of participants. In this piece, we argue that the MMT fiscal policy proposition of government spending into the private sector, with inflation being the only limiting factor, is not only needed for a real recovery from the...

Schumpeter did not like Knapp's Chartalist theory.econoblog 101Schumpeter on Knapp in his 1954 HEA Dirk Ehnts | Lecturer at Bard College Berlin

We did this before (New Deal). We can do it again (Green New Deal). The article shows why the ND and GND are similar as responses to environmental degradation. Most have forgotten what a paroblem this became in the US in the 30s. Kevin Baker refreshes our memory. The present threat is potentially much graver and presents a greater challenge than the Great Depression did, as bad as it was. HarpersWhere Our New World Begins Kevin Bakerht Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism Several leading...

The way in which Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has become politicised and misrepresented is quite something. The critics have all fallen into the same pattern. They rehearse a few statements that they claim represents what MMT is about, and, which they know will shock people who read and/or listen to them to conclude that the proponents of MMT understandings are crazy. A whole host of wannabees are now jumping on the bandwagon. And last week, 5 Republican Senators in the US Congress tabled a...