Mike Norman Economics

The map above is an update on last year’s look at Bitcoin electricity consumption. Currently, only 38 countries definitely consume more electricity than total Bitcoin mining. Other quick facts: The Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index currently estimates that Bitcoin mining is consuming somewhere between 55.63 and 73.12 TWh of electricity per year. This means Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than between 175 and 181 individual countries/territories (up from...

The Unz ReviewWho’s Coming to the US? Anatoly KarlinSee alsoEmulating Israel? Or ??? "I hope there won't be that, but I will tell you this – anybody throwing rocks... we will consider that a firearm, because there's not much difference," said Trump. Zero HedgeTrump Says Military May Fire on Rock-Throwing Migrants Tyler Durden

Assumptions are extremely important. If they’re wrong, everything which follows is probably wrong too. So when analysts don’t make their assumptions clear to policy makers, but instead try to pass them off as facts, there’s a great danger that poor decisions will result. What brings this to mind is a new report by Duncan Allan, published by Chatham House and entitled Managed Confrontation: UK Policy Towards Russia After the Salisbury Attack.... While what professor Robinson says is clearly...

Acting-President John Bolton speaks nonsense from his bully pulpit again. National security adviser says to cut discretionary spending Many budget experts say entitlements are bigger threat “It is a fact that when your national debt gets to the level ours is, that it constitutes an economic threat to the society,” Bolton said. “And that kind of threat ultimately has a national security consequence for it.”... BloombergBolton Calls National Debt ‘Economic Threat’ to U.S. Toluse...

The new project will involve both rail and sea transport. The products will be transported from India to the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on the coast of the Persian Gulf, then – to Bandar-e Anzali, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, from where they will travel to the Russian city of Astrakhan by sea, then to Europe by rail. The new route will be cheaper and shorter than the Suez Canal because the time and cost of transportation will be reduced by 30-40%. For example, compared with the Suez...

The Lancashire city has transformed its growth model through public investment and innovation. The socialists are learning the art of the market and I'm sure the Conservatives have little defence, at least for now. It looks like the tide is turning. The labour controlled council is even going to start a community bank to provide loans to local business. And that might even win a lot of traditional Conservative voters over.  Labour may not be in government but its ideas are already...

When scientists first developed the nuclear bomb they were not sure if the bomb could trigger a chain reaction that would turn the whole planet into a fireball. Hitler said he was not going to be responsible for the destruction of all life on Earth and dropped the idea, but a few years later the US went ahead and took the risk regardless.One of the US scientists stopped working on the nuclear bomb as he thought it was immoral, and another one calculated the risk of blowing the whole planet...

Joshua Klein says that Andrew Gillum runs an extremist organisation, but it doesn't sound very extremist to me. It's the US neoliberal, capitalist model and its militarily-industrial-complex which is extremist, as Andrew Gillum points out.  But what is bizarre is that George Soros seems to be funding some of these groups that Gillum is involved with. ORLANDO, Fl. – Florida gubernatorial candidate and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum served as the director of a radical youth training...

This isn't a game anymore, the West is behaving recklessly. The US put its psychopaths in charge of the Ukraine.Ukraine will close the airspace over the Black Sea to conduct missile tests in the Ukrainian region of Kherson. This is only one element of a larger strategy, specialist Semyon Uralov claims. According to the expert, the closure of airspace is part of a “systematic escalation.” The ball of contradictions is tightening. Just remember the attempts of Kiev to aggravate the situation...

Backgrounder. This is how a nuclear launch would go down.The fact that this is even appearing is a cause for concern.RTNuclear war: Hypothetical scenario & Russia's strike options Mikhail Khodarenok, retired colonel of the Russian militarySee also In Knutov’s view, the US has been “preparing for a real war with Russia since the 2000s.” “At the time, it was a theory, but now they start practicing,” he said, referring to the numerous exercises carried out by NATO, including in the...