I was teaching about deficits and debt this last week. If you know me and follow this blog, you'd know that I always emphasize the importance of the distinction between debt in domestic currency and debt in foreign currency. Functional finance authors (and MMT too) are correct in noting that a country cannot default on debt in its own currency (for a model of a currency crisis and default, in foreign currency go here; as afar as I know the only formalization of a PK alternative to the...

As I read Dean Baker’s perspective on Low Income families, I find it hard to believe. The market in the Southwest has dried up due to high prices and interest rates. One or the other has to be lower to attract buyers. Builders have not lower prices and bank rates have remained high. One builder was complaining of a lack of interest in a rate at 6%. Coupling to a higher price this is very true. It is also taking anywhere from 6 to 12 months to...

Economic Policy After The Midterm Elections  Will economic policy change much aa a result of the midterm elections? After all, the GOP has taken the House of Representatives, if only narrowly, with inflation and the economy supposedly the top issue, especially for those supporting the GOP. Will this reappearance of “divided government” have an impact on economic policy? My bottom line is probably not too much, although there is the serious...

November manufacturing and October construction both decline, the former almost at recessionary levels  – by New Deal democrat As usual, we begin the new month’s data with the ISM manufacturing index. This index has a very long and reliable history. Going back almost 75 years, the new orders index has always fallen below 50 within 6 months before a recession. Recessions have typically started once the overall index falls below 50, and usually...

from Jeff Ferry  For the last 90 years, the United States has pursued and advocated free trade. For the last 60 of those 90 years, American workers and other observers have watched America lose high-paying jobs to imports and asked: can this really be good for the American economy? Professional economists have answered, virtually unanimously, that yes, it is good, due to something called the Law of Comparative Advantage. They are wrong. Their free trade theory, based on the so-called...

My latest piece from Independent Australia, on my Substack Share this:Like this:Like Loading...

Going against willful stupidity is your DUTY! You don't have to know anything. Just fade the monetarists. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.mmteconomics.com/ Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman Mike Norman Economics: https://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/ Understanding the Daily Treasury Statement video course. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/understanding-daily-treasury-statement-video-course/?s2-ssl=yes

Strong personal income and spending contrast with near record low in saving  – by New Deal democrat Like retail sales earlier in November, personal income and spending both rose smartly, as shown in the below graph of real retail sales compared with real personal spending: Real personal income was up 0.4%, and real personal spending increased 0.5%: Nominally each increased 0.3% more; i.e., the PCE deflator was 0.3%. Each metric only had...

Dean Baker’s article is two posts below this post.  Here is an article from CEPR about the suspension. Washington, DC — The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) expresses concern at the sudden and disturbing temporary suspension of Dean Baker’s Twitter account today. Baker, who co-founded CEPR with Mark Weisbrot in 1999, and who currently works with CEPR as a senior economist, had his Twitter account, @DeanBaker13, “permanently suspended” without warning earlier today, only...

Somewhat speculative, but.….CounterpunchLife Beyond 1.5CRobert Hunziker