Mike Norman Economics

An internal government document reveals tactics of “economic warfare” and “financial weapons” the US is using against Venezuela in the name of “furthering capitalism.” SOP (standard operating procedure). Told ya so.Mint Press NewsInternal US Gov’t Document Outlines Program of ‘Economic Warfare’ on Venezuela Ben NortonSee also One after another right-wing government in the region — including Colombia, Chile, and Brazil — affirmed their support for Guaidó. The wave of support in the hours...

In the blog post earlier this week – The conflicting concepts of cosmopolitan within Europe – Part 1 (January 29, 2019) – I juxtaposed two concepts of ‘cosmopolitanism’ which appeared to be part of the early moves to achieve European integration. On the one hand, there was a Kantian-style desire to create, through cooperation between previously warring states, a peaceful and prosperous future for a ‘one’ Europe. This construct would be welcoming to outsiders, progressive, and celebrate...

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson never gets interviewed by the mainstream media. [embedded content]

This will be similar to the Vanessa Beeley 21st Century Wire article that Tom put out, but if you want th video version, this is excellent and I couldn't stop watching it..Vanessa Beeley says how the French police are deliberately kettling and provoking the demonstrates to become violent so the media can display them as anarchists. A top policeman came out and said this was happening. 150 people have received serious head injuries and some people have lost hands. One young woman was standing...

Think of what currently passes as a “policy” of the US in Venezuela as a diagnostic tool.  Not just to diagnose the moral degeneracy and mental pathology of the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire, but also to diagnose the very real state of despair and chaos of the Empire itself. Under Obama, for all his faults and weaknesses, the US succeeded in subverting a list of crucial Latin American countries (like Brazil or Argentina) but now, with Mr MAGA, it can’t even do that. The kind of antics...

Poorly argued. Economics professor Jonathan Portes admits that the fundamentals of MMT about operations are correct, and that MMT economists recognize that the financial constraint on fiscal deficits is inflation. Then he concludes that it is obvious that MMT cannot work since the real constraint is available resources and government spending uses resources instead of creating them. So, over time, inflation cannot be avoided other than by increasing taxes, that is, limiting the deficit by...

Fed on hold so bond market is now on hold. But what about the Fed's balance sheet reduction?

Video and transcript MARK WEISBROT: Well, it’s all illegal, of course. I mean, the sanctions that Trump imposed in August of 2017, or you can go back further to the Obama sanctions in March of 2015, the sanctions have always been illegal under the OAS Charter, under the UN Charter, under the treaties that the U.S. has, various international conventions that the U.S. is a party to. And also under U.S. law, because the president has to state in order to impose these sanctions in the...

For what it’s worth, my own take on the issue is as follows. First, the idea that Russia is innately aggressive and expansionist if false. While Russia has certainly acted aggressively on occasions, its historical record in that regard isn’t obviously any worse than that of other major European states. Second, there’s no clear connection between regime type and aggression, either in Russia’s case or more generally; current East-West tensions owe much to clashing interests and the structure...

The US is facing the turning point that Israel just went through with the majority of the population non-Jewish. Will the US act in the same way as Israel? One-third of eligible voters will be non-white in 2020, according to new datafrom Pew Research Center. Latinos will be the largest minority group in the electorate, surpassing African-Americans for the first time. Pew projects that Latinos will account for around 32 million eligible voters, or 13% of the electorate, up from 7% in the...