Mike Norman Economics

More on China.I concur with most of the post. However, I disagreed previously with the view that the US has no China strategy and that the Trump administration is shooting from the hip. Instead, US policy is to aim between the eyes with a sniper rifle to disable the rise of China in this century. I continue to hold this view. It is part of the larger view based on the Wolfowitz Doctrine of not permitting a competitor to permanent US global hegemony, which involves neoliberal globalization...

"Liberal democracy" is an oxymoron. What passes for liberal democracy is dying owing to its internal oppositions. Liberalism and democracy are incompatible. Being based on property, liberalism is naturally biased toward oligarchy Property ownership and property rights are dominant in liberalism and this leads to plutocracy. Ian McKay cites C. B. Macpherson on this. The problem arises from the basis of liberalism in property to the bias toward capitalism as an economic system....

Magpie critiques Paul Mason's criticism of MMT from the POV of a Marxist.Magpie's Asymmetric WarfareGetting all Tied Up (2) Magpie

This is an excellent presentation on ethics in finance if you have the time and interest.Money, Maths and MagicEthics and actuaries: issues and opportunitiesTim Johnson | Lecturer (associate professor) in the Department of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Big. The "official" narrative is unraveling. Caitlin Johnstone.comCONFIRMED: Chemical Weapons Assessment Contradicting Official Syria Narrative Is AuthenticCaitlin Johnstone

When is China going to follow Russia and float? We argue that policymakers in China are now going to be more accepting of USD/CNY appreciation through 7: years of regulatory measures should make outflows more manageable, easier monetary policy will add upside pressure and a weakening FX is the natural means of offsetting tariffs.... Zero HedgeSomething Just Broke In The Chinese YuanTyler Durden

Andrei Martyanov leaves a key piece out of this post, one that he and others have mentioned previously. The political jostling for control between the Western-leaning liberals (or so-called fifth column), the Russian oligarchs, and military-intelligence is over in Russia. Putin had been balancing these factors previously. Now the Stavka (General Staff) won and is control of Russian policy. This happened some time ago. It began after Kosovo and the eastward Nato expansion under Bill...

It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York [AP], London [Reuters] and Paris [AFP].... Why you can't always (ever?) believe what you see and hear on "the news," which is actually an echo chamber.The obvious question is, echoing whose voices? The article attempts to answer this but the subject is purposefully oblique...

The wealth of parents and that of their children is highly correlated, but little is known about the different roles genetic and environmental factors play in this. This column compares outcomes for adopted children in Sweden and those of their adoptive and biological parents and finds there is a substantial role for environment in the transmission of wealth and a much smaller role for pre-birth factors. And while human capital linkages between parents and children appear to have stronger...

In all the referendums for the last 25 years the working classes have systematically expressed their disagreement with the Europe presented to them, whereas the richest and the most privileged classes supported it. During the French referendum on the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, we observed that 60% of the voters with the lowest incomes, personal wealth or qualifications voted against, whereas the 40% of the electorate with higher incomes voted in favour; the gap was big enough for the yes...