Mike Norman Economics

“Blockchain can change the world just as much as the Internet. This technology is very important to the banking sector as it allows expenses to be reduced, significantly increases the speed and security of transactions and provides an unprecedented level of trust and transparency for all transactions,” commented Andrey Shemetov, Sberbank’s Vice President and Head of the Global Markets Department. “I’m sure that our joint blockchain project with the NSD and MTS is just the beginning, and...

"Neoliberal order." There, fixed it for you. In a twist on Trump’s “America First” policy, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump was not abandoning its global leadership but instead reshaping the post-World War Two system on the basis of sovereign states, not multilateral institutions. “In the finest traditions of our great democracy, we are rallying the noble nations to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity,” Pompeo told diplomats and...

Puncturing the balloon of "American exceptionalism" and "the noble American." Or, let's get some perspective here. Life is not black and white, but gray — or "grey" if you live in one of the English-speaking countries other than America.Consortium NewsHard Truths and the ‘Indispensable Nation’ Ken Orphan Consortium NewsJust How Corrupt is the American Soul?Lawrence Davidson

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...