Mike Norman Economics

Asymmetrical power. State capture by elites arises from asymmetrical power in societies rather than asymmetrical power being created by the state. "Might makes right." There are many factors involved in might other than physical force, but in the end, physical force is the ultimate enforcer. But in a cultured society, that is generally kept in the background and under liberalism, the elite has learned to be clever instead of brutal. But when push comes to shove.... Capitalism, like...

Is Bitcoin a Reaction to US Dollar Hegemony? Like Mike has been saying for some time. The DuranDe-dollarization and the rise of Bitcoin. Is there a connection between the two? Alex ChristoforouSee alsoThe iron fist of the US. As the launch of new ‘petro’ cryptocurrency draws near, a US government agency declared that this newcomer to the digital financial market may represent a violation of sanctions imposed against Venezuela, its issuer. Sputnik InternationalUS Treasury Warns About...

More potential $billions repatriation from fining the premier USD zombie nation:Trump tells @Reuters that he is looking at "big fine" against China in Section 301 case. “We’re talking about big damages. We’re talking about numbers that you haven’t even thought about." https://t.co/innCU3kINR— Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan) January 17, 2018

What the Tories didn't want to hear. [embedded content] The truth about Thersa May's government failure former met police officer Peter Kirkham told the truth liberals don't want to hear. For the last decade the rise of these problems have not gone away and, cutting police numbers will not help the problem, what is needed is a long term solution to help, Ms May and her penny pinching government are not the ones who will provide more police and resources.

Oh boy I can't wait to see how big the deficit is this month so far with all the tax cuts...Lets see here in the Cash Basis DTS thru January 16th:Total Withdrawals 636B - 440B Treasury Redemptions = 196B net withdrawalsSubtractTotal Withdrawals 666B - 463B Treasury Issues = 203B net deposits196B - 203B  equals..... wait for it .... -7B   ..... ie a SURPLUS!?!?!?Say it aint so!!!!Man-o-man.... How is the deficit going to ever get to $1.5T this year as EVERYBODY has been saying?Hmmmmm... ...

USDs coming out of Apple offshore savings.  And the deficit is going to skyrocket to over $1.5T how ???? Apple to pay $38 billion in repatriation tax https://t.co/au2y0tOSD0 pic.twitter.com/lfKIBCMbCE — Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) January 17, 2018

And guaranteed the prices are in USDs...Bride prices in China have shot up, bending the country’s society and economy out of shape pic.twitter.com/wrPyHsyH3b— The Economist (@TheEconomist) January 16, 2018

GDP's inventor Simon Kuznets was adamant that his measure had nothing to do with wellbeing. But too often we confuse the two. For seven decades, gross domestic product has been the global elite’s go-to number. Fast growth, as measured by GDP, has been considered a mark of success in its own right, rather than as a means to an end, no matter how the fruits of that growth are invested or shared. If something has to be sacrificed to get GDP growth moving, whether it be clean air, public...

The way China kept down the value of its currency was buy buying up government bonds with the dollars it acquired instead of just selling them in the open market. If China now decides to sell these bonds, it should mean that its currency will rise, thereby reducing the U.S. trade deficit. It's hard to see what the problem is here. Well, one (pseudo) problem I can see here is that many in the US will freak out because the yuan is getting stronger than the dollar.  If the strength of the...

I was part of an epic Twitter thread yesterday, initially drawn in to a conversation about whether the word "mainstream" (vs "heterodox") was used in natural sciences (to which I said: not really, but the concept exists). There was one sub-thread that asked a question that is really more a history of science question (I am not a historian of science, so this is my own distillation of others' work as well a couple of my undergrad research papers). Useful relative to philosophy of science...