Mike Norman Economics

Although the G20 still retains its potential to support the global economic stability, there is an impression that its mission is coming to an end. If this trend is not reversed, then, a summit or two from now, we might see the return of trade wars and competitive devaluations of national currencies. In that case, the current G20 format, built around the US leadership and hegemonic in nature, will not work at all. The nature of the G20 is that of an international forum, not an international...

I am doing some work on the way technology can be chosen to maximise employment in the pursuit of advancing general well-being. This is in the context of some work I am doing on advancing what is known as ‘relative pro-poor growth’ strategies in Africa via employment creation programs and draws on my earlier work in South Africa on the Expanded Public Works Program. In the current work, I have been assessing ways in which the Labour Intensive Public Works program in Ghana has been deployed...

A few days back all the British media was up in arms about a supposed Russian journalist who was said to be a spying on a British army faculty. He used his real name, his own passport, and his own car where the registration could be clearly seen. It was said that he tried to enter the base in broad daylight with a camera crew but was stopped by security guards. What sort of spy is that, but the British probably believed the stories? [embedded content]                                      ...

Anyone still reading The Guardian? "Guardian" of what one asks? The Establishment?Is there another option to the editor being either a moron or else complicit? Unless there is an exculpatory explanation quickly forthcoming that passes the smell test, some people need to be fired.Needless to say, The Guardian has joined a growing list of unreliable media that I will no longer be linking to, at least until there is a change in management.Disobedient MediaThe Guardian’s Reputation In Tatters...

Instructive. Margaret Thatcher may have been a neoliberal but she was not a fascist.Grasping RealityMargaret Thatcher Against Friedrich von Hayek's Pleas for a Lykourgan Dictatorship in Britain: Hoisted from the ArchivesBrad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

On Friday the ECB launched, with minimal fanfare, a brand new system aimed at enabling banks to settle payments instantaneously across Europe, helping them to compete with PayPal and other global tech giants. Developed in little over a year, the ECB’s not-for-profit TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system will let people and businesses in Europe transfer euros to each other almost instantly, at extremely low cost, and irrespective of the opening hours of their local bank.... Wolf...

Narrative creation operates based on pattern-recognition and repetition. "Tell a lie big enough and often enough and …. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous. — Joseph Goebbles, Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik, quoted in Big Lie at...

Knowledge as a factor of production. Knowledge is broader than information. Knowledge includes tacit knowledge, skill, and critical and creative thinking. In other words, the study of knowledge involves epistemology, logic and language, psychology, and other relevant fields in addition to information.  Information can be formalized but a great deal of knowledge cannot, at least given present limitations and future prospects through technology. Labor as the human component of...

The "free trade agreements" have little to do with tariffs and can be better described as "investor rights agreements" in that their main purpose is to shield companies from sovereign law. Laws are designed to protect a nation from environmental and labor abuses, and that might otherwise impinge on profits. The beneficiaries of the agreements are not so much the nations as the elite business owner class in each country. The opulent minority. Free trade in the sense that private companies...

Strategic Culture FoundationThe West Slips Down Another Step Patrick Armstrong The Nation War with Russia? Stephen F. Cohen | Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies, History, and Politics at New York University and Princeton University TASSKremlin unveils agenda of canceled Putin-Trump meeting Sputnik InternationalAnonymous Reveals Proof "Russian Meddling" in Catalan Independence Vote Fake Sputnik InternationalDefamation Impossible: Hackers Leak More Details on UK's Info War in...