Mike Norman Economics

My office was subject to a random power failure for most of today because some greedy developer broke power lines in our area. So I am way behind and what was to be a two-part blog series will now have to extend into Wednesday (as a three-part series). That allows me more time today to catch up on other writing commitments. The three-part series will consider a recent intervention that was posted on the iNET site (September 6, 2018) – Mainstream Macroeconomics and Modern Monetary Theory:...

Another Iraq WMD tale. The Wall Street Journal has just published a bombshell on Sunday evening as Russian and Syrian warplanes continue bombing raids over al-Qaeda held Idlib, citing unnamed US officials who claim "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country’s last major rebel stronghold."… That's right, unnamed US officials are now claiming to be in possession of intelligence which they say shows Assad has already given the...

A giant end-of-month spending spree in August has ballooned the Federal defiicit to $980 bln and 4.8% of GDP.This is the largest nominal deficit since 2009 and the largest as a percentage of GDP since 2012.The MMT gods should be cheering this. They're not. Weird.

Steve Bannon goes there, after being out of the headlines for some time. “What you saw the other day was as serious as it can get. This is a direct attack on the institutions,” Bannon said during a flying visit to Italy. “This is a coup, okay”.… “This is a crisis. The country has only ever had such a crisis in the summer of 1862 when General McClellan and the senior generals, all Democrats in the Union Army, deemed that Abraham Lincoln was not fit and not competent to be commander in...

Another trumped-up charge (pun-intended).The Unz ReviewCase Against Maria Butina Continues Falling Apart Anatoli Karlin

I just want to comment briefly on a few points that I saw some disagreements. Bond Economics Jayadev/Mason Article On MMTBrian Romanchuk

Business InsiderGOLDMAN SACHS: Chinese tech giants are dominating North America in VC funding for the first time, and it could be the start of an unprecedented boom (BABA, BIDU, JD)Ethel Jiang ReutersNorth Korea military parade features floats and flowers, not missiles Josh Smith The Vineyard of the Saker Russia’s Asymmetric Response to the US in Syria Aleksandr KhaldeyTranslated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard

Yet again, it's a conservative that is talking peace, while Bernie Sanders increases hostility with Russia. KV. Republican State Senator Richard Black of Virginia has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and claimed to have knowledge of an alleged Western plot to stage a chemical weapons attack there as a pretext for military action. Black, an Army veteran, traveled to Syria on Wednesday to express his support for the government's war against insurgents and jihadis who rose up in a...

US President Donald Trump has held secret meetings with traitorous Venezuelan troops to discuss plans to oust President Nicolás Maduro, the New York Times reported. According to a former Venezuelan commander whose name was not revealed, at least three different groups within the Venezuelan army planned a coup against Maduro’s government, the New York Times reported. The blows would have occurred in the summer of 2017, March and May 2018, but none of the plans proved to be successful....

George Galloway is a very skilled performer; there is no hesitation or pauses in his speaking, no ers and ums. I think he is formidable and it's a shame he's not the Labour shadow deputy leader. [embedded content] "The two suspects are more Austin Powers than James Bond" says George Galloway as Theresa May hits out at Russia saying that the Skripal attack was authorised at the highest level of the Russian state.