Mike Norman Economics

Marco Rubio has second thoughts. Watch GOP candidates up for reelection in 2018 backpedal.Grasping RealityAnd now it is official: the official non-Trumpist Republican line is now that all of that stuff about the tax "reform" bill delivering materially faster economic growth in exchange for widening inequality was just boob bait for the bubbas.Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Another side of the story that you won't find in Western media. Russia FeedNavalny’s phoney Presidential bid and the Russian Presidential election Alexander See also On December 29, Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) registered the unchallenged leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as a presidential candidate. Zhirinovsky, who is going to run for president for the sixth time, is the first officially registered participant in the election race. In...

CCTV is China Central Television. The article provides insight into the thinking of Chinese elites, business and political. The Chinese business elites backed the wrong horse, CCTV Panview editor and commentator Tom McGregor has told Sputnik, speaking about them pinning their hopes on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. According to McGregor, some of them still believe Donald Trump will fail and maintain ties with the Clintons and George Soros.... Sputnik International |...

Seven years ago, the US led an effort to address a problem facing governments everywhere. Each year, people manage to avoid paying an estimated $2.5 trillion in income tax — a giant sum that could be used to combat poverty, update infrastructure or lower tax rates for law-abiding citizens. Now, however, the US is becoming one of the world’s best places to hide money from the tax collector. It’s a distinction that the country would do well to shed. In 2009, amid growing budget deficits and...

I would phrase it somewhat differently: "It's the distribution, stupid."The social and political problems arise from grossly asymmetrical distribution and the ensuing distributional effects economically through highly asymmetrical income and wealth.Occasional Links & CommentaryIt’s the profits, stupid!David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Here: NAFDAC hereby alerts members of the public on the circulation of fake Coartem tablets. The active ingredients on the sachet of the fake Coartem tablets are written as ARTMETHE/UMFANTRNE while the manufacturer is written as NOVRTS. pic.twitter.com/J2auTl1nZ0 — NAFDAC NIGERIA (@NafdacAgency) December 28, 2017 Then here: Plenty of dupes while toiletry shopping in Venezuela: Hoed & shouders shampoo, Yahnsan's soap and more pic.twitter.com/U6SVo3ship — Patricia Laya (@PattyLaya)...

EVERYBODY is on board.We are about to hit trillion dollar deficits, and unlike last time, they'll be self-inflicted. https://t.co/4DE5Mt6OJ4— Maya MacGuineas (@MayaMacGuineas) December 29, 2017 Makes me wish there were futures contracts for the deficit instead of bitcoin...

Hayek, Coase and uncertainty. In any case I find it fascinating that the two, Hayek and Coase, both in their own way, brought the impact of uncertainty to the fore in the same year. It’s a shame that economics has never fully embraced, nor realized, the full richness of their ideas. Neither author was willing to step into the world that they clearly understood existed. Hayek was right about universal central planning: it is an impossibility. He was wrong to assert that this implied...

A very heated debate between Max Keiser and Dr Jack Rasmas. Max Keiser says central banks will be buying Bitcoin in 2018. [embedded content]

[embedded content] Ukraine’s Naftogaz and the Kiev administration have been praising themselves as victors after nearly four years of litigation against Russia’s Gazprom and the long-term gas contract signed in 2009. This legal adventure finally ended through arbitration in Stockholm this past Friday. Ukraine proudly declared themselves the winners as they narrowly escaped what could have been a national default. In truth, the Stockholm judgment does not look like a win for Naftogaz,...