Mike Norman

Alan Grayson's e-mail on Moody's warning that it might reduce the US's AAA rating, suggested that Moody's was either threatening a downgrade because it wants to get the Bush tax cuts for the rich extended, or, alternatively, that “Moody's is living in what Aristophanes called "Cloud Cuckoo Land."” He says this because Moody's is upset about the possibility that the US may go over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” even though if it did, it would theoretically result in $560 Billion of deficit reduction annually, without further legislative changes, and it makes no sense on the surface for a rati Read below the fold...

About Two and a half months ago, Mike Norman pointed out that when Federal spending and tax collections in fiscal 2012 were compared with those for the same calendar date in 2011, data from the Daily Treasury Statements (DTS) showed that 2012 Federal spending was lagging behind 2011 spending by $433 Billion; while 2012 tax revenue Read below the fold...

It's hard to listen to the doomsday rhetoric of Austerians like Paul Ryan and intermittently the less hysterical, but equally mythical narratives of the President when he talks about deficit/debt reduction, when you know better; when you know that both are talking about a bogeyman that doesn't exist. Here's Ryan, the Republican wunderkind:

“We face a crushing burden of debt. The debt will soon eclipse our entire economy, and grow to catastrophic levels in the years ahead.”

Read below the fold...

One of the most emotional issues in American politics is the sovereignty of the United States itself, and its independence from foreign powers, interests, other nations and their ruling elites, and emerging globalizing elites who place their own interests against the nation interest of America and its people. The issues of fiscal sustainability and fiscal responsibility should be discussed from the viewpoint of our national interest, not from the viewpoint of abstract financial ratios, or supposedly critical indicators that generate a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Read below the fold...

A friend, Julia Williams, writes and asks:

Isn't it true that in actuality, the US doesn't, in fact "borrow'? It spends or trades? And if that is the case, doesn't that just blow the deficit hawks out of the water?

Here's my answer to her. Read below the fold...

Is the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) approach to economics beginning to crack the MSM? Read below the fold...

A number of people including myself have been furiously blogging for many months now on the world-wide austerity war that most Governments are fighting against the well-being of their citizens. Read below the fold...

On December 30, 2010, George Jarkesy's New Captains of Industry Program broadcast an Economist Round Table called: “Economics 101 for Politicians and Policy Makers”. The round table featured Warren Mosler, Randy Wray, and Mike Norman. Warren and Randy are two of the three “fathers” of the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) school, and Mike is one of its most active supporters in the blog and radio worlds. The moderator of the program was George Jarkesy. The round table, almost an hour long, is a great opportunity to learn about MMT's relevance for policy by listening to a very frank conversation in which the MMT practitioners talk very directly about the foibles approaches being taken by the economic establishment and today's policy makers, on the point of impoverishing our country through Governmental austerity. Read below the fold...

Laurence Kotlikoff has been making waves by using "inter-generational accounting" and CBO and IMF data, to compute a fiscal gap of $202 Trillion in present value. He concludes that this gap shows that the US is "bankrupt" as of now. Evidently, publications like Bloomberg take this sort of thing seriously since they publish it. Read below the fold...