Mike Norman Economics

RTChristmas in Aleppo: Syrians celebrate as city recovers from years-long bloodshed (VIDEOS)Sputnik International'Our People Couldn't Be Broken': Syrian Aleppo 2 Years After Liberation

Despite 40 years of unprecedented economic growth, Chinese leaders' efforts to promote their development model have run up against political suspicion. But it makes little sense for countries to reject outright the lessons of China’s economic miracle, and deepening Good observations and advice. Project SyndicateLearning from China Erik Berglöf, a former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is Director of the Institute of Global Affairs at the London...

Brad DeLong notes that fundamentals are the same now as three months ago. Arguably, the fundamentals have improved. So, what's up with the market correction and seemingly near-panic behavior?  Changing expectations, involving apparently irrational discounting, owing to factors other than the fundamentals of the American economy. Is there anything that accounts for this based on changed conditions internationally or domestically?  Of course, various cases can be made for big changes...

A great interview, but very short because you have to subscribe to listen to the long version.Steve says that Western countries can't absorb migration the way they used to because neoliberalism stagnated their economies but also because of the population growth. The answer, he says, is to stop the causes of mass migration which is Western sponsored wars in the Middle East and climate change. But I think he would add, that imperialist capitalism is driving people in less developed countries...

Fear of Trump Administration implosion behind stock selloff.

Lots of people vote for establishment political parties thinking they are the parties of the law and order, but what if they are run by crooks who run protection rackets?Lester Ernest was a staunch Republican, but when he found out how crooked the establishment were he became a socialist. He is a computer genius whose designs are responsible for much of the services available on the internet today.Lester Ernest says the Cold War US rader defence system never worked and was a $trillion scam...

This essay is based upon arguments made in Chapter 2 (“Some Theoretical Considerations”) of my book, Can the Working Class Change the World? Good article by Marxian Michael D. YatesI would say that if it has any failing, it understates the dystopian effect of "capitalism" as a system that favors capital (ownership) over labor (people) and land (the environment). That kind of system, which takes many forms, e.g., classical economic liberalism and contemporary neoliberalism, is is a recipe...

Is Trump finally finding his feet? It was said he didn't expect to win the presidency and was dead scared when he went into Whitehouse, but is he now getting the hang of it? Who knows what's going on, we just have to hope for the best?Let's hope, though, that his stance towards Iran is just bluff, like it was towards North Korea.This has been an extraordinary week... After two years of getting rolled by the Washington establishment, it seems that President Donald Trump woke up and suddenly...

This made my blood boil - time for a revolution, I think. The Tories have been seriously slashing the welfare system in the UK causing great hardship for 30% of the population. The Conservatives say work is better, but most of these people are in work and yet still live in extreme poverty. Work doesn't pay!  The U.K. Welfare State was never a socialist utopia, says Philip Aston, the UN Special Rapporteur. It was always about hard work, but it provided a safety net - the bare minimum -...

Alan Fong interviews Christopher Simpson, author of Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects On the Cold War. Video and summary transcript. While many people are aware of some aspects of this, Christopher Simpson elaborates some of the details. US policymakers never gave peace a chance after the defeat of Nazi Germany, nor do they do so after the collapse of the USSR. This is still relevant to US policy of using collaborators and proxies, including neo-Nazis in Ukraine...