Mike Norman Economics

The curse of oil and Dutch disease used to force compliance. [Mark] Weisbrot and [Jeffrey]Sachs say that these sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment,” as laid out in the Hague Convention (1899) and in the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). The United States is a signatory of both of these frameworks. “Collective penalties,” says the Fourth Geneva Convention, “are prohibited.” Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are dead. Tens of thousands more are under threat of death....

Devaluation would be the most disruptive.FortuneChina Is Running Out of U.S. Goods to Tariff, But It Has Other Trade War Weapons to Unleash Eamon Barrett

The US and its allies have fatally underestimated the religious motivation of their adversaries, and lost countless conflicts as a result. The Sunni-Shia divide is as real and as influential as the Catholic-Protestant conflict in the West and the Catholic-Orthodox conflict that dates to the rivalry between Rome and Constantinople and now encompasses the Western Eastern Christian worlds and their worldviews. The West, under US leadership, taking the side of the Sunnis is a huge strategic...

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...