Mike Norman Economics

The world’s central banks have acquired a record amount of gold in the third quarter of 2018 since 2015. The biggest buyer was Russia’s Central Bank, according to the World Gold Council (WGC) report. Over the past three months, global gold purchases totaled more than 148,000 tonnes, up 22% year-on-year, reports the World Gold Council. The leaders in purchases were Russia (99.2 tonnes of gold) and Turkey (18.5 tonnes).Russia’s central bank gold reserves surpassed 2,000 tonnes for the first...

George Magnus, the brunt of the post, is an ideologue. This would not be worth posting if it were not also the Western consensus view that missed the mark on China all along owing to assumptions that are wide of the mark — wrong model. Fort Russ NewsNo, Xi’s China Is Not In Jeopardy! How Western Press Gets It All Wrong Dennis Etler

The de facto civil war in the US is obscuring two existential threats — climate change and nuclear war. Jatras mentions only the latter. Still, the US remains addicted to ever-increasing sanctions, and despite warnings from both Russia and China that they are prepared for war – warnings virtually ignored by the US media and political class – the US keeps pressing on all fronts: outer space, the Arctic, Europe (withdrawal from the INF treaty), Ukraine, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait,...

Good article on MMT. It's essentially a short lecture by Stephanie Kelton. She is very articulate. CFO‘The Federal Government Does Not Need Revenue’ David McCann

Shithole....See: Socialism, Sahara, sand...Venezuelans Face Gasoline Shortages Amid Refinery Breakdowns https://t.co/w0sMgf1ENI via @markets— Jose Cardenas (@JoseCardenasUSA) November 3, 2018

The 40B per month of asset purchases by the ECB create non-risk reserve assets in surplus Germany causing the denominator in DB's Leverage Ratio to continually increase and the ratio to violate the threshold....Checkmate... again....This will stop if the ECB doesn't renege on its promise to stop these purchases next month and then Europe should start to turn up slightly...Or.... its all part of the "vast neo-liberal conspiracy!!!".... Very hot take on #EBA #StressTests1) if you think...

Another interesting talk by the British philosopher, ALain De Bottom. He's very good at what he does. Off topic, but very entertaining. [embedded content]

It looks like people are doing something about the fake news and propaganda in our media. A reminder that the event “Scrutinising the media: Fake news, censorship, and war” is taking place tomorrow, Sunday Nov 4, Lincoln, UK. It promises to be an interesting and highly relevant discussion. More information at the events’s website. Or contact the organiser David Hughes at [email protected] event will engage the public in discussion and debate about journalistic objectivity in...

Deal-breaker for the US. The "trade war" is about submission to the US. That is a non-starter for the Chinese. It's uni-versus multi-lateralism.ReutersChina says willing to meet U.S. over trade issues on equal footing

Singapore has had an even more "draconian" (from the US perspective) social policy than China for many years. Ever hear of it in the US media that trumpet the "Singapore miracle"?The fact is that Asians are traditionally much more social than Americans, who are the most highly individualistic people in the world. One nation's "liberty" is another's "license." This is also the case internally in the US, and it is one factor in the extreme divisiveness that the US is now experiencing socially...