Mike Norman Economics

Three major players – the United States, China, and a loose coalition formed by the other members of the G7 – are shaping the future of the international economic and geopolitical order. And they are all engaged in three contests simultaneously, without knowing which one is the most important. This is about international relations, geopolitics and geo-strategy, and these fields are generally analyzed in terms of game theory. The only one that can know which game the US is currently...

President Putin sees this plainly: “The Americans keep on indulging in these games as the actual goal of such games is not to catch Russia in violations, and compel it to abide by the treaty; but to invent a pretext to ruin that treaty – part of its belligerent imperial strategy”. Or, in short, to impose a ‘rule-less, US, global order’. What is happening is that Bolton and Pompeo seem to be precisely taking Trump back to the old 1992 Defence Policy Guidance document, authored by Paul...

POTUS as troll-in-chief.The WeekJon Stewart expertly explains how Trump punks the media

I was in China October 20-28, throughout which I experienced and carefully observed China first hand. Here is a summary: China is doing very well, as usual, and the trade war between the U.S. and China has zero effect on average Chinese citizens, so far. Specifically, let me highlight four points:The opening of the HK-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. China's Import Expo. Japanese PM Abe visited China. China in the large. econintersect.comWhat is really going on in China? Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat,...

It is Wednesday so just a few things to report and discuss. I have noted in recent weeks an upsurge in the Twitter noise about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and various statements along the lines that MMT economists are male chauvinists, mindlessly attack other heterodox economists because we are a religious cult, that we thrive on conflict, that only the US has a sovereign government and more. Quite amazing stuff. And these attacks are coming mostly from the so-called heterodox side of the...

All of this intense mental activity in direct competition with a cognitive ability to abstract; perhaps leaving these ancient people deficient in or maybe even without any ability to abstract (scary!!!): The Jews used mnemonic devices, or memory aids to help them memorize Scripture.With such a demand on memory, there were ingenious memory devices and aids invented to aid in the memorization of the Torah and oral law. One such aid was involving the whole body in learning – it was thought...

There has been an intense academic and policy debate on what monetary architecture is the most appropriate recently, but many issues are still unresolved. This column looks at the circumstances under which the current system and the sovereign money system yield the same outcomes, the core arguments in favour of the current system, and what advantages a sovereign money architecture might offer.... Vox.euSovereign money: A challenge for scienceHans Gersbach | Professor at CER-ETH - Center of...

The thing that almost all of the framers really agreed on is that a broad franchise for electing representatives makes things too responsive to the popular will; and that even where the franchise is appropriately, in their view, restricted to white men with sufficient property, with even more property required for standing for office, a legislature unchecked by a more elite upper house still makes things too responsive. New ideas were out there. They urged not direct democracy but access to...

SRW come up with a conclusion similar to Aristotle's. Democracy can only work if it has stochastic basis that can't be gamed.InterfluidityContinuous electionsSteve Randy Waldman

The recently published “Globalists:The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism” by Quinn Slobodian charts the history of neoliberalism from its rather humble origins (in terms of intellectual importance, not in terms of income level of its main participants) in Vienna and Geneva to its ascent to a very important if not dominant position in economics, both in theory and economic policy. It is a very well researched book that, I believe, brings even to those who know the essentials of...