Mike Norman Economics

It looks like the US is on its way out. All empires end when they get too big and then get overblown with a big military while its core crumbles with its civilians become poorer. Pure capitalism can't ever work as it will always leave too much power in the hands of just a few people who will still want more and more until the system collapses. The six ancient Chinese civilizations all ended the same way and the Chinese never learnt their lesson. A greedy few would always in the end hollow...

The bottom line on aircraft carrier survivability is that only a handful of countries can credibly pose a threat to America's most valuable warships, and short of using nuclear weapons none of those is likely to sink one.... The National InterestAre U.S. Aircraft Carriers Nearly Unsinkable? Loren B. Thompson | Chief Operating Officer of the non-profit Lexington Institute and Chief Executive Officer of Source Associates, a for-profit consultancy. Prior to holding his present positions, he...

Fort Russ News has no problem printing a retraction, but we'd rather avoid that when we know beforehand that we'd later have to. There's a cynical saying inside the news world, that news only has to be true for a day. We aren't interested in that. Maintaining readership and building trust as a credible paper, emerging as a paper of record, is a long-term and principle-based project, and this means not covering a sensational story that gives a short term boost to ratings. Fort RussChina to...

New data shows continued weak inflation in US, Europe Asia TimesStill no Phillpsy-Curve David P. GoldmanUS tax bill gets huge boost as McCain says yes

 With its focus on Central Asia and Eastern Europe, the Belt and Road Initiative can be seen as fulfilling a strategy of challenging the West that can be traced back to Mao…. In the midst of this frenzy of connectivity, it’s easy to overlook a significant historical point: that it was all anticipated by Mao Zedong. Scholar Chen Gang has stressed how most BRI-participating nations are not as developed, economically, as China. And they are “not just limited to the Eurasian continent, but...

100% correct observation here but what is the solution?I can tell you it is NOT to just try to force these Arts degree people into material systems jobs that they are not qualified to do... that is what we have been doing and here we are stuck in this moron-fest... we have to figure out how to get them robustly provisioned without trying to force them to be something they are not. Social Justice Warriors are not working class heroes. They are bourgeois arts graduates with no aptitude for...

US forces trying to cut these USD zombies off from their source.I've never seen zombies defeated this way, normally it takes a direct head shot and eventual development of a vaccine.We'll have to see how this new strategy does...Afghan and U.S. operations against Taliban sources of revenue have set the Taliban back approximately $11 million since Nov. 19. “In the face of this pressure, the Taliban cannot win,” Gen. Nicholson said. #AFGStrong #ForAFGhttps://t.co/raEVDH4Ngu...

During dinner, Kai-Fu lamented that 10 years ago, it would be fair to call Chinese companies copycats of American companies. Five years ago, the claim would be controversial. Today, however, Kai-Fu is clear that claim is entirely false.... SingularityHubChina Is an Entrepreneurial Hotbed That Cannot Be Ignored Peter Diamandis | Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation

This article is adapted from the German edition of Super-Imperialism (2017).… It's a fairly long article. Here are some highlights in summary. The U.S. response has been to extend the new Cold War into the financial sector, rewriting the rules of international finance to benefit the United States and its satellites – and to deter countries from seeking to break free from America’s financial free ride. Aiming to isolate Russia and China, the Obama Administration’s confrontational diplomacy...

According to multiple reports in Middle East regional sources, China plans to send elite military units to Syria to advise and assist the Syrian Army in an attempt to root out the country's terrorist insurgency, especially Chinese Islamist foreign fighters who have shown up in increasing numbers in Syria's north since the start of the conflict. If confirmed this won't be the first time China - one of the five veto-wielding powers of the UN Security Council - has sent assistance to the...