Mike Norman Economics

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis warned Saturday there could be an aggressive U.S. response to China's military presence in the South China Sea. Mattis warned there could be "much larger consequences" in the future from China's installation of weapons on disputed islands, the Wall Street Journal reported.... UPIMattis warns of future aggression to Chinese militarization Sommer Brokaw See also Adam Garrie, a political writer and activist, made the remarks in reaction to US President...

This post deals with a set of ideas that I find appealing, but contradictory. I know I do not fully understand many of them. Perhaps somebody who understands more can either agree with me that there are contradictions here or point to some way of resolving them. This post is also more about current events than is typical of my posts.... Not actually about Fox News but rather on the use of analytic concepts in human science — psychology, sociology and political science, and by extension...

The report concludes that the persistence of extreme poverty in the US is a political choice made by people in power. It also criticizes US policy for making healthcare a privilege rather than a right. Deutsche WelleUN report slams US for criminalizing poverty as destitution grows Reuters

The power of the mass market. The difference in wealth that is not inherited lies largely in access to the mass market and control of intellectual and artistic property.FortuneTaylor Swift Made $54 Million for 6 Days Work. How’d You Do? Chris Morris

Russian politics.Russian and Eurasian PoliticsPUTIN 5.0: Tea LeavesGordon M. Hahn, analyst and Advisory Board member at Geostrategic Forecasting Corporation, member of the Executive Advisory Board at the American Institute of Geostrategy, a contributing expert for Russia Direct, a senior researcher at the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, Akribis Group, and; and an analyst and consultant for Russia – Other Points of View

Robert Paul Wolff is largely correct here, but "the deep state" cannot be equated with bureaucracy as a political factor ensuring constancy and stability, as Max Weber described. He apparently did not so a search on the term "deep state," which seems to have originated with respect to Turkish state and intelligence services and senior administration under Kemal Ataturk. In Russia is this is known as the siloviki (senior career intelligence and military) and nomenklatura (senior...

And then there are the mini-Bots, a parallel currency system very reminiscent of what Yanis Varoufakis proposed for Greece. Basically, they would allow the government to pay some of its domestic obligations (suppliers etc.) in the form of IOUs, which could then in turn be used to pay taxes and -other- government services. They would leave what is domestic, domestic.There’s a lot of talk about this being a first step towards leaving the euro, but why should that be so? The main ‘threat’ lies...

Michael Hudson reports on his recent trip to China for a conference.  Not only Chinese housing but US as well. Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of NeoliberalismChina’s housing: It Doesn’t Have to be This WayMichael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking...

Jobs and Defense... Striking a strong blow on behalf of working men and women, Donald #Trump's policies are bringing jobs to destitute towns like Ashland, Ky., while revitalizing American manufacturing. #tariffs, #aluminum, #steel https://t.co/yueQlavAla — USA TODAY Opinion (@usatodayopinion) June 1, 2018

Links and commentary.Russian ObserverRussian Federation Sitrep 31 May 2018 Patrick ArmstrongalsoRussia FeedRussia launches its new hyper-sonic warhead from submerged submarine (Video)