Mike Norman Economics

The Ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov, (2010 - 2014) has today in Moscow spoken in defense of American political adviser, Paul Manafort, who for a long time advised the Ukrainian government, and is now under charges in the United States. I was amazed when formal charges were brought against Manafort, whom I have known for many years personally, met dozens of times, talked for hours. And when they tell me that this man is accused of plotting against the US and pursuing a hostile...

Now that Syria is off the table for regime change, effectively blocking a Saudi pipeline into the European market, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are zeroing in on Lebanon.... The DuranNow that Syria is off the table, Lebanon is targeted as the next front in Saudi-US energy warAlex Christoforou

Important backgrounder explaining what is really going on with Afghanistan. So, this new Great Game goes on, with wily Vladimir Putin, tweeting Donald Trump, smiling Xi Jinpeng and creepy Narendra Modi all trying to outwit each other, and rope in the other minor players to their side. Sic Semper Tyrannis Tillerson’s Trip & the new Great GameFB Ali At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism,...

The World Economic Forum's Transformation Maps - a constantly refreshed repository of knowledge about global issues, from climate change to the future of work - are now publicly available for the first time and free of charge. But what are they? And what can we do with them? Transformation Maps are the World Economic Forum’s dynamic knowledge tool. They help users to explore and make sense of the complex and interlinked forces that are transforming economies, industries and global issues....

The concept of market efficiency has attracted a considerable amount of debate over the decades. The issue is that the definition is problematic; efficiency is more an attribute of the investors in the market, rather than the market itself. If we turn the focus to the role of investors, most of the mysteries associated with the concept evaporate. (Note: This article is in a preliminary state. I started thinking about how to write up the role of market efficiency in the context of breakeven...

The British newspaper, The Independent seems to be getting in beds with Commies lately. The evidence I elicit is the recent article (November 4, 2017) – Actually the magic money tree does exist, according to modern monetary theory – by a journalist Youssef El-Gingihy. It gives oxygen to the views of an Australian economist, one William Mitchell who espouses what is known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – yes, you got it in one – another crackpot economic approach that fails to recognise...

Why the US works with respect to internal trade among states while the EZ doesn't.Pragmatic CapitalismThe Balance of Payments in the USA Cullen Roche

Ed Harrison looks at inversion historically.Credit Writedowns Why the flattening yield curve doesn’t worry me yetEdward Harrison

How big will Amazon get? Stuff is as cheap or cheaper than the shops and you an get it next day. Order it at 7pm on a Saturday and some poor Herbert may deliver it to you at 6pm the next Sunday evening.  He will drive his own car, have no uniform, and be self employed. What happened to the good postman job? Remember the postman whistling in the old days, now they just zoom by.  Surely we can all agree on this: Amazon just doesn’t have enough power yet. Which is why Amazon appears to be...

A couple of years ago I attended seminars with Chinese and Israeli counterterrorism experts in Beijing, in my capacity as a board member of a foundation that promotes Sino-Israel relations. A senior Chinese official complained that the Saudi royal family funds every radical madrassa in Xinjiang province, where Muslim Uyghurs of Turkish ethnicity form the majority. With a long and porous border stretching through sparsely-populated lands, Chinese security couldn’t prevent the funds from...