Mike Norman Economics

Another boom, but can it last! We are 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis, and unsecured consumer debt has reached more than £200bn for the first time since 2008. It’s up 10%, year on year. The best that can be said of the matter, as compared to the pre-crash debt boom, is that at least there are worries about it. The Bank of England and the credit ratings agency Moody’s are among those who have warned that the situation could be problematic. Which seems like an...

The arguments made against the American Empire are so compelling that Washington intends to silence them. [embedded content] RT’s Capitol Hill press credentials have been revoked after the network was forced to register as a foreign agent. This handicapping of RT journalists’ ability to report on US politics doesn’t surprise Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, who says the neocons find RT’s arguments too compelling to allow people to hear.

More bad news out of Europe this morning, I'm afraid it seems EZ area industrial expansion is at 17 year highs.Unfortunately, current ECB led fiscal redistribution scheme via negative rates and financial asset purchases seems to be working.ECB collecting EZ interest payments and somewhat equitably redistributing them back to the Treasuries of the member nations for fiscal spending and deficit reduction; ie redistributing EUR balances that would probably otherwise be saved by the non-govt...

PCR switches from his usual outrage to concern over monumental US hubris. Begging for nemesis?Paul Craig RobertsCan’t You See War On The Horizon? 

The USA Patriot Act, passed hurriedly after 9/11, taught us that rushing a surveillance bill through Congress is a bad idea, producing complicated statutes ripe for abuse. Yet the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee is taking a page out of President George W. Bush’s playbook and trying to do just that. Tomorrow, the committee will debate a bill that dramatically expands NSA surveillance authorities, including one that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The bill was...

Deficit hysteria rises just prior to the hitting of the debt ceiling due on Dec. 8th, which will ratchet up debt phobia, too. What else is new in Moronville? Behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, concerns were mounting, however, about Republican Senator Bob Corker’s push for a snap-back “trigger” amendment to the bill that would raise taxes automatically, possibly on corporations, if economic growth targets are not hit in the future, to offset a higher deficit.Conservative Republican...

Some fact-checking about the newly contracted Kerch Bridge over the Kerch Strait of the Sea of Azov that connects the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland. Fort Russ Atlantic Council wants war against Russia over a Ukrainian fish story Christelle Néant in Agoravox.fr, translated by Tom Winter

The Russian government is convinced that US sanctions are aimed at regime change in Russia.RT US sanctions aimed at turning business elite against Putin before election – KremlinSee also RT's Capitol press credentials cancelled.Sputnik InternationalRussia Hysteria: US Congress Revokes RT’s Capitol Hill Press Credentials

People in the alternative media are often said to be spreading fake news, especially when it comes to false flags, but this Italian documentary seems to indicate that there was indeed a false flag at Maiden Square in the Ukraine. Global Research also has the full Italian documentary.Global Research - The Hidden Truth About UkraineExcerpt - The interviews with three snipers of Georgian nationality, conducted by the Italian journalist Gian Micalessin and aired as a breathtaking documentary...

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...