Mike Norman Economics

[Francis] Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He said today: “Any U.S. attack targeting the Syrian government or its forces would clearly violate both U.S. and international law. When Obama was in a similar position in 2013, his advisor Ben Rhodes [see below] has since commented that they turned back largely because they were afraid of impeachment. That fear is well founded. While the prospect of impeaching Trump is thrown around frequently...

Chinese direct investment in the United States fell by more than 35 percent in 2017 due to policy shifts in both countries, according to a new report jointly released on Tuesday by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) and the Rhodium Group...  EcnsChinese direct investment in U.S. plunges in 2017 due to policy shifts Xinhua

The narrative now is "Assad cannot be allowed to normalize use of chemical weapons."The US has already normalized the use of torture and illegal aggression.FiredoglakeWho’s Who Of American War Criminals And Torture Apologists Endorse Gina Haspel For CIA Director Kevin Gosztola | managing editor of Shadowproof Press and producer and co-host of the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure"

Trump calls on his Cabinet to propose stronger work requirements for welfare across the board. VOX Trump wants to slash welfare with stricter work requirementsTara Golshan

Where the oil is. Predictions are a tricky thing, but here’s one: Within a few years, America will gain nothing, and Washington will come to regret what turned into a messy, prolonged excursion in Syria. Pundits will wonder how it happened though it will have seemed preordained, just another unavoidable foreign policy disaster in an intractable region. And this is the optimistic scenario. The National InterestThe U.S. Military: Proud Owners of One-Third of Syria Danny Sjursen, fellow at...

Russian aluminum giant Rusal has activated a contingency plan asking customers to pay in euros instead of dollars to try to skirt round U.S. sanctions, a source close to the matter said. De-dollarization. ReutersExclusive: Rusal triggers Iran-style defense after U.S. sanctions - source Dmitry Zhdannikov, Pratima Desai

The American Conservative is quite good. It even has an article today criticising the privatisation of veteran health care, which is another racket.  KV The president will very likely order an illegal attack on another government in the coming days. Trump has no authority to order an attack on the Syrian government, which has not attacked the U.S. and doesn’t pose any threat to America or its allies. There is no international mandate for military action against Syria, and there is no vital...

... even before the US Treasury announced its newest sanctions against Russian individuals and their companies for “malign activity around the globe”, ... President-elect Vladimir Putin was preparing a successor cabinet of ministers on the principle that they would be organized as a headquarters staff for fighting a war on all fronts, without the option of negotiating terms with the enemy. The impact of the US sanctions, along with the campaign of the British Government in the Skripal...

Dani Rodrik has a nice interview to ProMarket, the blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Rodrik’s views are dissenting but within the conventional DC wisdom/New Consensus. For example, he said as recently as last year that free trade is fine as long as losers as compensated, which is far from accurate, as free trade leads to loser regions as well. Still he has better views than neoliberals. In this interview Rodrik is asked about the...

Zuckerberg’s auto-da-fé before the Congressional inquisition is designed to send a message to his tech industry colleagues, as well as provide official cover for the future enforcement of draconian rules against deviants from the official script. “Misuse of social media!” cry the new Inquisitors. But who decides what constitutes “misuse”? Isn’t that what the First Amendment is all about?…. The suppression of free speech in the US and the rest of the “capitalist democracies” (a glorious...