Mike Norman Economics

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

The Donald Trump administration is planning to install a 30,000 strong armed “security force” in northern Syria along the borders with Turkey and Iraq. This presumably will tie together and support the remaining rag-tags of allegedly pro-democracy rebels and will fit in with existing and proposed U.S. bases. The maneuver is part of a broader plan to restructure Syria to suit the usual crop of neocon geniuses in Washington that have slithered their way back into the White House and National...

Peter Koenig is a good guy.  Organised crime and gangsters are running the show, but maybe, just as in all the best films we have ever seen, good will finally overwhelm evil and set the world free from this tyranny. KV Although, here it must be added, according to international law, most of Greece’s debt was imposed by the troika under illegal circumstances. It’s also called “odious debt”, the description of which reads “In international law, odious debt, also known as illegitimate debt, is...

The WikiLeaks founder has a human right to healthcare. It will not be met while he remains confined in the Ecuadorian embassyLife inside the Ecuadorian embassy is taking its toll on Julian Assange. I suspect this blew up bigger than he thought and now he has sacrificed everything for the truth. A massive sacrifice. Where are the good guys, they're there in all the children's fairy stories, they are in our best novels, our legends and folklore are full of them, our hearts lift when the good...

The Stupid Party Remains Stupid In the 1970s neoconservative Irving Kristol aptly described the Republicans as “the stupid party.” We are seeing this today in the hesitation of the House Intelligence Committee to release to the American public the results of its investigation of Russiagate. The committee has released a description of its findings to members of the House, and most Republicans who have read it are demanding that it be released to the public as it clearly proves that...

[embedded content] Days ago the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis updated and revised America’s global defense strategy. It is a dark vision of the world and calls for massive defense spending. What he calls a defense strategy critics say is a blue-print for wars without end. CrossTalking with Michael Vlahos, Christopher Neiweem, and Philip Giraldi

"Profits = Investment - Saving"Or, "Profits = Expenditure - Income". Those are just alternative ways of saying the same thing, for a closed economy, if investment and saving include government investment and saving. Most economists will say that's wrong. And it is wrong by standard definitions, where aggregate expenditure and income are the same thing, and investment and saving are also the same thing (for a closed economy, including government investment and saving). But let me tell you...

Ed Harrison on Ray Dalio on bonds.Credit Writedowns Ray Dalio: We are already in a bond bear market right nowEdward Harrison