Mike Norman Economics

An interesting article, but I'm not a historian so I don't know how accurate it is. Because the winners write history and many of the facts are missing, Sylvain Laforest says his conclusions are speculative, but he thinks he has got it about right. Rather than a great mystery, the parachuting of Hess is much more an explanation about the historical reality that transpires in the most obvious way, thanks to the 180 degrees change of behavior by the US about its involvement in the war after...

Milton Friedman said greed was good, but that wasn't we were taught as children by our families, schools, and Sunday schools, where we had it drilled into us that being greedy was very bad indeed. And we all agreed, because children are born with an innate sense of right and wrong.  Then the Conservatives came along, which is the party of law and order and family value, and said that greed was good after all. Now we see how greed is destroying the US economy. As the wealthy continue sucking...

According to the scientifically unqualified, this is a “bailout!”: Alan Schwartz, who was the chief executive of Bear Stearns when the investment bank collapsed, the first casualty of what would become the global financial crisis, said it was the government that set the price tag for Bear’s March 2008 fire sale to JPMorgan Chase at $2 a share.  Shareholders were livid after Schwartz announced a deal with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon that valued the company’s stock, which had...

G.W.Bush once said that sometimes money trumps peace.  On rare occasion a story is unearthed in the mainstream media which demonstrates in stunning clarity how major foreign policy decisions are really made in Washington, especially when it comes to waging perpetual war in the Middle East often under the official rhetorical guise of "protecting civilians". A bombshell Wall Street Journal report details a leaked classified memo which shows Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decided to...

In handicapping the US-China conflict, Keynesian demand management is a better guide than comparative advantage. In principle, China can avoid any damage at all from US tariffs simply by responding with a full-scale Keynesian stimulus.... Trump’s surprisingly successful rhetorical technique of “shout loudly and carry a white flag” helps to explain the consistent inconsistency of his foreign policy. The US-China trade war is likely to provide the next example. Project SyndicateWhy the US...

Headline says it all really – it’s not exaggeration or spin on our part. For months, years even, we’ve been told that Trump is “the Siberian candidate”, or “Putin’s puppet” and “Russia’s Weapon”. The evidence was never supplied, but those who questioned the claim were mocked, derided and ignored. None of that matters now…because today, in the New York Times, these words were published:… no public evidence has emerged showing that his campaign conspired with Russia in the election...

Since its first announcement I have been convinced the Nordstream 2 pipeline would be built. I have followed every twist of this story from my days writing for Newsmax.And the reason for my confidence can be summed up in one word. Money.  Nordstream 2 simply makes too much economic sense for any amount of political whining from the U.S. and Poland to stop it. Poland has no power within the European Union.Germany does. And while I’m no fan of Angela Merkel getting another political...

On August 23, the container ship Venta Maersk left the Russian port of Vladivostok and headed to Bremerhaven in Germany. Normally, a trip like that would take the Venta Maersk through the Suez Canal on a 34 day trip. Instead, the ship will sail through the sea north of Russia on a route that will only take 23 days.  Last week, the Venta Maersk passed through the Sannikov Strait, the narrowest and most hazardous part of its journey, and is expected to arrive in Germany by the end of the...

“I think the most likely scenario now is not a splintering, but rather a bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America,” Schmidt told tech-heads at a private event in San Francisco on Wednesday, organized by investment firm Village Global VC.... RTEx-Google CEO: Internet will split in two, with China controlling half

Overt money financing.Open DemocracyWhy the public debt should be treated as an asset John Weeks | Professor Emeritus, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, and author of 'Economics of the 1%: How mainstream economics serves the rich, obscures reality and distorts policy', Anthem Press