Mike Norman Economics

On October 5, the White House released a 139-page report, "Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States." The report had been originally due to be completed in April, but the deadline was extended, due to the importance of the study and the involvement of the Defense Department, the Commerce Department, the Treasury Department and the White House in researching and writing it. The report is unclassified (there...

There's a difference between reality and belief.

Big — potentially, that is. Have to wait and see what it means. Kudrin is anathema to the Russian "deep state" (intel and military). There is apparently something of a power struggle going on in Russia now between the Western liberals and the conservative deep state, with the deep state holding the power if push comes to shove. Putin seems to be caught in the middle. “If Kudrin joined the administration or government, it would indicate that they have agreed on a certain agenda of change,...

I spend most of my time on this blog mocking all the exaggerated nonsense which passes for political commentary nowadays. It’s a rare day that I come across something which is both stimulating and well-written. Fortunately, this is one of those days. Via Facebook (which has its uses), I was pointed in the direction of an excellent article by Patrick Lawrence in this summer’s edition of the magazine Raritan Quarterly, of which I had not previously been aware. I can recommend it to you all,...

"The more complex the math, the more simplistic and banal the postulated relationships and conclusions tend to be." - Michael hudson

All the "$Trillion Deficit!" club members (which btw is E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y...) were only off by about 30% of how we ended up...The U.S. federal budget deficit rose in fiscal year 2018 to $779,000,000,000, $113 billion higher than the previous fiscal period, CNBC reports. https://t.co/EckTstJKBZ— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2018

No bottom in sight; down another 0.85% last night....US in 2008 iirc via same moron monetary policy implementation was down about 40% off its highs before govt said uncle and added capital to banks via fiscal policy so maybe (hopefully) they only have another 12% to go...Chinese stocks close at their lowest level of the year. Shanghai Composite Index down 28% from its high in January. #China pic.twitter.com/VBqs98z9vw— jeroen blokland (@jsblokland) October 16, 2018

Automation will bring growth, but history tells us labour’s share of national income will decline The World Bank has a reassuring message for those fearful of being made obsolete by automation. The robot age is nothing to be worried about. Just like all previous waves of technological advance, the fourth industrial revolution will create rather than destroy jobs, so fears of mass unemployment are largely unfounded. Nor should we be concerned that the arrival of the new machine age is...

We are the most loving and the most violent creatures in nature; the most artistic and the most destructive; the most altruistic and the most greedy; we have the most extremes.Do animals think and feel, do they love and have friends, do they feel sad, lonely and get depressed, do they have empathy?Why do so few animals attack us and yet we attack them?Humans believe they have free will, but I think animals believe they do too. Well, they don't believe because they don't have our type of...

Mankind learned the art of going into battle much later than previously thought, a new academic study I read somewhere once, and I think I even posted it here, that years ago human groups got no larger than about a hundred people and so everyone knew who the psychopath was. Only a few people needed to be conned by the lying, cheating, toe rag for everyone to know who he was, and after that, he had to behave himself or he would get thrown out of the group. But in modern society, though,...