Mike Norman Economics

Caitlin goes after the military-industrial complex in general, and specifically Northrup Grumman. The "racist employee" is just the lede. It's really a reminder of how right Ike was in his warning to the country about the growing power of the MIC when he left office.Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue JournalistNation Horrified To Learn Child-Killing Death Merchants Have Racist EmployeeCaitlin Johnstone

I always like looking at the data for other countries than the US — laziness and the ease of accessing FRED data are big reasons for most of the models being tested on US data. Additionally, the political economy of the US tends to bring up more US-centric questions.I'm also not very well informed about a lot of the political economy and economic history of other countries. This is both good and bad. It's good because it means I don't go modeling the data with a preconceived economic...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States may ultimately impose tariffs on more than a half-trillion dollars’ worth of Chinese goods as the world’s two largest economies hurtled toward the start of a trade war.... Does China need Western markets more than the West needs Chinese market? Looks like we are going to find out as equities markets make their bets. ReutersTrump says U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could exceed $500 billion David Lawder and Elias GlennSee alsoZero...

Trump and Putin are likely to discuss the tricky situation in southern Syria when they meet; while the US president says he wants US forces back home, the CIA, Pentagon and Israel may be happier to see them stay so the war-torn state remains unstable. Obama could not bring the US deep state under control. We'll see if Trump can, or wants to.Asia TimesEagle-meets-Bear and the Syria tug-of-war Pepe EscobarSee alsoRussia: Other Points of ViewRUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 5 JULY 2018 Patrick...

Propagandizing for "liberal" intervention in Iran. Read "imperial" instead of "liberal. Back in December a memo was leaked from inside the Trump administration showing how then-Secretary of State, DC neophyte Rex Tillerson, was coached on how the US empire uses human rights as a pretense on which to attack and undermine noncompliant governments. Politico reports: The May 17 memo reads like a crash course for a businessman-turned-diplomat, and its conclusion offers a starkly realist...

John Quincy Adams warned against foreign entanglements and imperial ambitions.Jack MatlockMUSINGS III … Celebrating July 4 Jack Matlock, retired career foreign service officer and US ambassador to Russia, 1987-1991.

Here’s my analysis of the weekly EIA report and tomorrow’s jobs number.

With the launch of our new website, we are reintroducing visitors to our policy issue areas. Informed by the academic research we fund, these issue areas are critical to our mission of advancing evidence-based ideas that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. Through June and continuing in July, expert staff have been publishing posts on our Value Added blog about each of these issue areas, describing the work we do and the issues we seek to address. The following post is...

The paper analyzes briefly the changing ideas on the role of money and banks from William Petty to Thomas Tooke, including the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx. It analyzes the role of ideas in shaping the evolution of central bank regulation. Particular importance is given to the Bank of England’s inconvertibility period, from 1797 to 1821, and the ensuing debate in shaping Robert Peel’s Bank Act of 1844, which is often seen as the birth of modern central banking. The...

We should just go take the oil...The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s. This must be a two way street. REDUCE PRICING NOW!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2018