Mike Norman Economics

When put out a video by Yanis Varoufakis here recently I had some people saying that Varoufakis was part of the problem, not the solution (I'm paraphrasing). Well, in this article F. William Engdahl really does lay into Yanis Varoufakis for letting Greece down and selling the country out to the  mega banks,Troika–ECB, IMF and EU.  Putin had offered Greece a superb deal to leave the EU and join BRICS, but would have anyone been brave enough to take that option and would the Greek ruling...

More fake news from the Democrats. At its most basic, the report must be seen as a shot in the bitter partisan conflict which is currently raging in the US between President Trump and his Democratic Party opponents. That the primary target of the report is actually President Trump – who continues to say that he wants better relations with Russia – is confirmed by these words in the report.... While this may be political on the part of Democrat and Never Trumpers, it also reflects the view...

The debate goes on.Lars P. Syll’s BlogIs economics — really — a science?Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

I guess the feeling is mutual. Russia FeedPoll: 68% of Russians view the US as public enemy number oneNick Ivanov Except from Lesley Stahl interview with RT chief Margarita Simonyan. CBS transcript. Lesley Stahl: I get the impression though that your views of the United States have kinda curdled. Margarita Simonyan: It didn't just happen to me. It happened to more or less all of Russians in 1999 when you bombed Yugoslavia. The U.S. called that NATO operation a humanitarian...

Western countries have been running so-called troll farms against other states for a long time and may now be only seeking to expand operations by developing new software, says former MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon. The faux outrage over "Russian intervention" is contradicted by Anglo-American SOP (standard operating procedure). RTThe West? Trolling foreign states for over a decade – former MI5 agent RT interviews Annie Machon, former MI5 intelligence officer and whistleblower...

India has a different concept of democracy and liberalism than America and Indian traditions and values are different from America's. This is true of other democracies, such as Russia.  These differences are often not understood or appreciated by the US and this leads to disappointment, pressure and even conflict. There is more than one way to be free, and imposing a particular view of liberalism is illiberal. OUP BlogOur Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World...

I am surprised that Geoffrey Hodgson would make an elementary error in argument by taking an arbitrary definition as an absolute criterion. His argument actually says that those he is opposing are using the term "public good" in a way that contradicts current convention in the dominant faction of the economics profession. What if the definition is too narrow to fit the general case and is therefore only suitable for special case models? This is similar to the claim of...

The West starting to wake and realize that the shoe is on the other foot? In the Chinese view of time and history, the 500 year dominance of the West is only a blip on the screen and the 200 year history of Western liberalism is just a flash. Asia TimesFrench president questions China’s New Silk Road strategyEmanuele Scimia

Here is a chart of how the bank has to account for a deposit: So the left side entry is an increase in an asset account for the bank; and accordingly, the bank has to include any increase in total assets in its computation of its regulatory Leverage Ratio; ie capital/assets.So in periods where tax revenue increases to the point of surplus, when Treasury elects to maintain  those surplus USDs in depository accounts "to earn some interest for the taxpayers!" instead of in the non-interest...

Boy, I had to put this one out, Jimmy Dore on form again and doesn't mince his words.He describes how Amazon and Walmart are destroying the country and so need to be broken up, but congress is owned by the oligarchs so it isn't going to happen. And the oligarchs also own the corporate media so hardly a squeak from them either. This is the result of unregulated capitalism, says Jimmy. [embedded content]