Mike Norman Economics

Good article about the political situation in Iran.Here is an aside. “The policy of the United States should be regime change in Iran,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has said. “I don’t see how anyone can say America can be safe as long as you have in power a theocratic despotism.” Of course, this ignores US support of Wahabi and Salafi Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE, which are far more repressive theocratic dictatorships than Iran's. Then, there is Israel, an apartheid state that is in effect a...

Professor Cohen updates on Ukraine, which is turning into Trump's folly, along with Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and North Korea, giving "America First" new meaning based on his previous statements. DJT now owns it, and it promises to come back and bite him. The NationFour Years of Ukraine and the Myths of MaidanStephen F. Cohen is a professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University and a contributing editor of The Nation.

I stand with Paul Feyerabend in taking an "anarchistic" approach to the philosophy of science. There is no "scientific method" that is the final arbiter of doing science. Or, as Mao famously said but did not follow through one, "Let a hundred flowers bloom." The cream will rise to the top. Science is what scientists do, and free inquiry requires that they be free to pursue their curiosity. Exploration of options and alternatives is basic to evolutionary theory. Those that don't adapt to...

Dragon-breath.  Calling Siegfried.Real Clear DefenseComing to Grips With a Rising China Ramon Marks

Big fight shaping up now that weed has been capitalized? Ignoring how well Prohibition worked out? States' rights?The HillSessions will end policy that allowed legalized marijuana to prosper Reid Wilson

Just before Xmas (December 22, 2017), the IMF proved once again that leopards don’t change their spots. Thy released a Working Paper (No. 17/286) – Australia’s Fiscal Framework: Revisiting Options for a Fiscal Anchor – that demonstrated they hadn’t learned a thing from the last decade of crisis and fiscal interventions (stimulative and opposite). The paper demonstrates no understanding of context, history, or the role that fiscal policy should play in advancing general well-being. It is a...

Summary of Grantham's guesses (described "absolutely my personal views")A melt-up or end-phase of a bubble within the next 6 months to 2 years is likely, i.e., over 50%. If there is a melt-up, then the odds of a subsequent bubble break or melt-down are very, very high, i.e., over 90%. If there is a market decline following a melt-up, it is quite likely to be a decline of some 50%. If such a decline takes place, I believe the market is very likely (over 2:1) to bounce back up way over the...

President Trump has not changed his position on protecting entitlement programs from funding cuts, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday. After last month's GOP victory on tax reform, many Republicans are calling for changes to the social safety net as a way to cut government spending. But, asked about Trump's repeated campaign pledge to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Sanders said he doesn't support cuts to the programs. "The president hasn't...

With the Trump and Netanyahu administrations now working in lockstep, U.S.-Israeli hostility towards Iran has now ripened into a plan to repeat what befell Syria over six years ago – the hijacking of minor protests and their transformation into the cover for a foreign-funded insurgency intent on toppling Iran’s elected government. Mint PressBirth Of An Insurgency: The US-Israeli “Secret Deal” To Manipulate Protests In Iran Whitney WebbSee alsoShort and important. Flores is a good analyst....

Branko Milanovic on his new paper with Thomas Hauner and Suresh Naidu exploring inequality prior to World War I and providing empirical support for the classical theory of imperialism. ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessInequality, Imperialism, and the First World WarBranko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and...