Mike Norman Economics

Palace intrigue. Tom Cotton is positioning himself for a presidential run down the line.LobeLogTom Cotton Appointed “Never Trump” Bill Kristol’s Son Legislative Director Eli Clifton

Brazil slips back to banana republic status.CounterpunchBrazil’s Democracy Pushed Toward the AbyssMark Weisbrot

The most influential US foreign-policy membership society has issued a report affirming the new Cold War and its eagerness to fight it. Here we go again. Cold War = arms race.The US military has been advancing on Russia and China for years and Russia and China have responded to the perceived threat predictably by arming up. Now the US is claiming that Russia and China are threatening US interests and the US needs to commit more resources in order to stay on top.It's a self-augmenting cycle...

Is this a shoe dropping, or maybe a hammer? The Alt Right is going ape over this, while the Democrats are taking steps to head it off at the pass by discrediting it before it is released. I haven't posted on it previously, since it has been speculative and the reporting most biased by the side doing the "reporting." Harper provides a piece that is of interest. I suspect we will be hearing a lot more about this as the drama unfolds.Sic Semper Tyrannis Harper: Is This FISC Document...

While audiences of Western media may be seeing the group, they aren’t actually being provided the proper context of who the MEK and NCRI are. Instead, MEK protests are being shown across Western media as “anti-regime” protests representative of the general mood of Iranians. The problem with these protests — which have been highlighted by outlets like Fox, Salon, and Vox — is that they aren’t actually taking place in Iran. Instead of highlighting the concerns of the legitimate protests in...

Great idea!BTW, if you are not aware of Open Culture, it has gathered a lot of free resources. Open CultureRobert Reich Makes His UC Berkeley Course on Wealth and Inequality in America Available on Facebook Dan Colman

The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis published a very interesting article earlier this month (January 15, 2018) – Older Workers Account for All Net Job Growth Since 2000 – which was written by William Emmons, the Lead Economist with the Bank’s Center for Household Financial Stability. The Center focuses on the “balance sheets of struggling American families” and was launched in May 2013 in response to the GFC. It seeks to investigate factors that impact on the fragility of household...

Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak will visit the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, where she will take part in the discussion on "the post-authoritarian future of Russia" on February 6.… In addition, Sobchak's visit to the United States may extend to February 8 for the annual National Prayer Breakfast, at which US President Donald Trump will be present. US doesn't collude with candidates in Russian politics? What would be the reaction if the...

Productivity growth (the rate at which technology is displacing workers) had slowed to roughly 1.0 percent annually in the years since 2005. This compares to a 3.0 percent growth rate in the decade from 1995 to 2005 and the long Golden Age from 1947 to 1973. Most economists expect the rate of productivity growth to remain near 1.0 percent as opposed to returning back to something close to its 3.0 percent rate in more prosperous times.…  It is also worth noting that the high productivity...

Trump administration focus on the fiscal impact of continuous trade deficit takes the big stage this week. And still NOBODY gets it... Wilbur Ross Killing Them Softly in Davos - The Post WWII Gravy Train is OVER. "What was perfectly appropriate in 1945 is singularly inappropriate as we sit here this year....There's no longer a need to subsidize China, or Japan, or Europe with our money." #Davos #Davos2018 pic.twitter.com/xWA1xZN4V3 — TrumpSoldier (@DaveNYviii) January 25, 2018