Mike Norman Economics

Crypto really catching on down in that cesspool of corruption... many people being introduced and becoming familiar with the technology...There Are At Least Twice as Many Bitcoin Traders in Brazil as Stock Investors https://t.co/IlPcw9ch3R #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YdjCmUNrK4— Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) January 22, 2018

The fearmongering over cyber-warfare with Russia isn’t about actual threat, it’s about vanity, history and MoD greedSimon Jenkins is a moderate conservative who is spot on again. Why can't some Guardian journalists on the left, like George Monbiot, be writing this stuff? The Russians are coming. The terrorists are at the door. Feel afraid, feel very afraid. Give us the money. Every year at budget time, the defence lobby waves shrouds and howls blue murder. With yet another defence review in...

Here, Craig Murray describes his personal experience of the PFI (private finance initiative) rip off scam.  He says that because things have gone so badly wrong the elite are now ready for some privatisations and tax increases, but that isn't enough, a more radical overhaul is required. It looks like Corbyn might not be ready for the task, his hands are tied.   Craig Murray  Here is my personal experience of the great push for the public sector to use the Private Finance Initiative. When...

When the latest Greek bailout deal between the Greek government and the European Commission/IMF) was concluded on June 16, 2017, I concluded that it was designed to fail. Please read my blog – Latest Greek bailout – a recipe designed to fail. Despite all the statements from the European Commission and the IMF to the contrary, the terms of the deal with the Greek government confirms that these institutions had abandoned any pretense to being interested in serious economic policy. For the...

Central bank "independence." Say again?Oh, right. Central bank independence means political indolence of technocrats from influence or intrusion on the part of elected representatives. It has nothing to do with influence by financial industry cronies.Real-World Economics Review BlogThe curious silence of the British media regarding Mark Carney and the secretive G30 Norbert HäringAlsoJean-Claude Trichet cannot be chairman of the ECB’s ethics committee any longer

Much is being made about the ostensibly omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Russian propaganda machine. In the Western view, it decides Western elections and threatens the ‘global liberal order’. In fact, an anti-Putin media organ has published a comparison of the resources devoted to propaganda or ‘strategic communications (stratcomm) by Russian and just the US (excluding European) governments. It demonstrates that the American propaganda machine alone is approximately 3-4 times more...

We learned in recent days that the FBI and the National Security Agency “inadvertently” deleted electronic messages relating to reported felonies, but one noxious reality persists: No one in the FBI or NSA is likely to be held to account for these “mistakes.” It is a 70 year-old tradition. Today’s lack of accountability is enabled by (1) corruption at the top of intelligence agencies; (2) the convenient secrecy behind which their leaders hide; (3) bureaucratic indignities and structural...

MMT in Germany. Tonight at 6PM I will give a lecture with the title Modern Money Theory and European Macroeconomics – an Alternative to the Policy of Austerity?. It takes place at room S27 at Von-Melle-Park 9, Hamburg University. The lecture is part of a series organized by AK Plurale Ökonomik Hamburg and will be held in English. More information is available here. econoblog 101Lecture tonight at Hamburg UniversityDirk Ehnts | Lecturer at Bard College Berlin

The German Contra Magazin called on NATO to understand that a war against Russia is "suicide". Readers of the publication noted that Germany remembers this especially well....In NATO, there are forces that are convinced of the correctness of a "military solution" of confrontation with Russia. However, anyone who attacks the Russians "actually commits suicide" because of the strength of Russian weapons and Moscow's readiness to use them in case of a threat to its security. An author of...

Another case in which investigators fail to ask the right questions. Dances with BearsThe CIA Bull In Glenn Simpson’s Russia ShopJohn Helmer