Mike Norman Economics

Moronic. Whoever wrote this doesn't have any understanding of accounting and the credit-debit relationship that underlies accounting.  All borrowing results in a debt that is a payable and corresponding saving that results in a loan that is a receivable. A debt is account payable and loan is a account receivable.   A debt obligation is a financial liability and ownership of a loan is a financial asset. Some credit is used to to fund capital investment, and some credit is used to fund...

Must-read unless you are really up on transaction cost. As Simon says, companies that win tenders by bidding low have an incentive to cut quality. The question is: is it possible to stop this happening? It’s here that transactions cost economics enters. This perspective began with Ronald Coase’s famous essay, The Nature of the Firm (pdf). Whether we should do a job in-house or through the market depends upon the comparative costs. And, he said, “there is a cost of using the price...

Finian Cunningham is one of my favourite reporters. I have emailed him a few times and he is very pleasant indeed. It looks like Washington doesn't want peace between North and South Korea. Just as North and South Korea achieve important peaceful exchanges, Washington and its NATO allies appear to be moving with determination to sabotage the initiative for averting war on the East Asian peninsula. The Vancouver summit also called for proactive interdiction of international ships suspected...

I liked this as I thought this sounded optimist.How can we break the power of the corporate media and get messages like this out? A multi-polar world where we trade to each other to improve our lives and tackle the world's problems, like climate change, diseases, and slowing down the population growth, etc. The wonderful world we could have rather than this, but now the Western elite are starting another war in the Ukraine. These warmongers need to be arrested and put on trail for crimes...

I love this guy, even if he does get it wrong sometimes, like he defends the white working class bigoted male, but hey, these people elected Trump and may have saved us from a nuclear war that Hilary - the warmonger who was always up for for another war - could have caused. No wonder PCR defends them.  If Trump is real, he will arrest Mueller, Comey, Brennan, Hillary, Obama, the DNC, and break the presstitute media monoplies into a thousand pieces. In my opinion he should also arrest...

I have yet to read one analyst who believes that the U.S. administration can achieve any of the wishes it announced. It is a hapless policy of "doing something" which will fail when resistance on the ground will ramp up and the political costs of the occupation will become apparent. The YPK Kurds in the north-east, who agreed to their occupation, will be the ones who will have to to bear the wrath. All other parties involved in Syria will hold them responsible. Moon of AlabamaSyria -...

Liberal democracy, or theocratic apartheid state? Until today the state of Israel has not decided whether it is a theocracy for Jews or a democratic sovereign state. The ultra-orthodox appear to be on the road to winning this fundamental battle of principles. Ultra-orthodox radicals are increasingly occupying key positions, thereby imposing their stamp on the secular majority. Israeli’s secular democrats are growing increasingly worried that Israel’s future may resemble Saudi Arabia and...

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the US Embassy in Moscow of concealing the transfer of money to opposition groups, to destabilize the political situation in Russia. This was stated by the Department of Information and Press of the Foreign Ministry. "We urge the United States to stop this practice, return to decent behavior, renew responsible and orderly inter-state communication. We demand that the US authorities finally begin to follow their own national legislation and...

Partial transcript and link to podcast. A few days ago, we had the opportunity to visit with Professor Stephen F. Cohen. As regular readers know, we've been featuring his weekly podcasts with John Batchelor for the past four years so it was a real honor to speak with him directly regarding The New Cold War. As mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, we are all indebted to John and Steve for their regular, weekly discussions. Their podcasts offer the only fair and balanced coverage of...

This is a longish and heavily intellectual analysis in the dialectical mode. However, it is a significant strand in thinking about geopolitics and geostrategy from a long term historical perspective and from a particular point of view.Worth a look if you are into this sort of thing and think Dugin has something to say.It's not necessary to agree with people to make them worth reading. A lot of people that one may not agree with exert an influence.Dugin's influence over Putin is greatly...