Mike Norman Economics

Despite Putin's popularity it seems most Russians would prefer to go back to communism. They worked six days a week but it was leisure. The goods they made, like their cars, were often shoddy, but so what, life was easy. KV Over 50 percent of Russian citizens believe the collapse of the Soviet Union was bad and could have been avoided. The majority of Russians polled in a 2016 study said they would prefer living under the old Soviet Union and would like to see the socialist system and...

Hmmm what will they think of next.... maybe they could send an Ambassador from their Embassy to California to help that state with its financing...New Bitcoin Embassy Opens in the United States https://t.co/yZXlMFiiXu #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/BYPcQvidlK— Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) February 25, 2018

More trite and coerced human behavior modification:How Billy Graham Changed My Life https://t.co/7p0LSpoUKt— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 24, 2018

The financial press said Latvia was said to be the poster child of neoliberalism. It massively deregulated, privatised, implemented austerity, lowered taxes on the rich and raised them on everyone else, crushed labour slashing wages,  and the economy seemed to boom as exports increased. But young graduates could not find jobs so they emigrated in droves, while Latvian gangsters came back seeing that the lack of deregulation meant they could get up to serious mischief.    Last week we...

Problems with pensions.  Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of the February 5 volocaust, we quoted David Hunt, CEO of $1.2 trillion asset manager PGIM, who said ignore the volatility spike, the real financial timebomb was and remains public pensions: "if you were going to look for what’s the possible real crack in the financial architecture for the next crisis, rather than looking in the rearview mirror, pension funds would be on our list."  In a brief discussion wondering what...

Here's Door #1: Here's Door #2: I'll take Door #1 please...

Let's hope Trump gives up the bluff and starts negotiating. This war would be totally pointless and is completely avoidable, says Danial Larison.  Trump made another not-so-veiled threat against North Korea yesterday: Speaking at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump made apparent reference to military options his administration has repeatedly said remain on the table. “If the sanctions don’t work, we’ll have to go phase two,” Trump said. “Phase two...

Neil fyi'ed this thing from the coin people... we'll never make any sense of it...The economic theory the Bitcoiners are relying upon: https://t.co/6a9uLYxrjU— Neil Wilson (@neilwilson) February 24, 2018

[embedded content] An absolutely riveting but disturbing documentary about child prostitution in Afghanistan. The English RT team go to Afghanistan and interview a pimp and his team and I couldn't believe how open and honest they were, but child prostitution with boys over the age of 12 years old is not illegal, or a blind eye is turned, in Afghanistan. Women are not allowed out, and if they do get out occasionally in the back streets, they are fully covered head to toe. Men are frustrated...

[embedded content] I was wondering whether to put this out when I saw Tom's post, American Meddling in the Ukraine, so I thought that this fits in. The US has supported fascism all over the world, toppled democratic regimes, and has perpetuated the most extreme violence and brutality to keep their fascist regimes in place. It is now supporting Neo-Nazi fascists in the Ukraine. And yet it portrays itself as the bastion of freedom, liberty, and democracy, while it considers itself the World's...