Mike Norman Economics

Peter Dorman considers when liberalism needs to become illiberal, e.g., squelching dissent based on freedom of thought and expression, in order to protect itself. The question is where to draw boundaries and on what basis.EconospeakFreedom of Speech for Fascists?Peter Dorman | Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College

Whitehead founded The Rutherford Institute to preserve and defend human rights and civil liberties in a non-partisan way. He issues a stark warning to Americans. Unless we can learn to live together as brothers and sisters and fellow citizens, we will perish as tools and prisoners of the American police state. CounterpunchAmerica Breaks Down: The Anatomy of a National Psychosis John W. Whitehead | President, The Rutherford Institute

There are two myths which are deeply imprinted in the minds of most US Americans which are extremely dangerous and which can result in a war with Russia.The first myth is the myth of the US military superiority. The second myth is the myth about the US invulnerability. I believe that it is therefore crucial to debunk these myths before they end up costing us millions of lives and untold suffering.… Military analysis follows. The video is interesting, too, about 8 minutes.The Unz...

Western liberalism was developed as a secular replacement for the Christian religion that forms one of the four pillars of Western civilization — 1) the Judaeo-Christian religious tradition, 2) , and 4) modern science and technology. Western liberalism is an attempt to bring the first three in line with modern science as the latest development.  Greek thought based on reason and Roman law and organization can be viewed as precursors to the development of modern science. But traditional...

We are just out of the field on a flash poll in the U.S. taken last week, with 1,000 members of the general population and an oversample of 113 Silicon Valley-based tech employees on the impact of fake news on trust in mainstream media. The sad conclusion that has been drawn by a majority of Americans is that fake news is created by the media with a motive, destruction of political opponents. The logical end point is establishment of echo chambers, in which one reads only that which one...

As the Trump administration mulls sending weapons to Ukraine, the question of far-right forces employed by the Kiev government has returned to the forefront. Some Western observers claim that there are no neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, chalking the assertion up to propaganda from Moscow. Unfortunately, they are sadly mistaken.There are indeed neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine. This has been overwhelmingly confirmed by nearly every major Western outlet. The fact that analysts are able to dismiss...

I'm still reading The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, which is fun, well-written and in my view less controversial than what most reviews have suggested. Yes, inequality tends to fall mostly by violent means during periods of crisis. Note, also, that Walter Scheidel uses in this book the concept of surplus, and as noted earlier here (or hereand here) before is part of this broader group of social scientists that still use...

In a full about turn, Gordon Brown, has now decided that Jeremy Corbyn is a the right person to lead the UK out of it’s troubled times.... Brown, whose leadership of the country was fraught with setbacks, said that Corbyn’s war on rising inequality and stagnant wages was “absolutely right.” The London Economic Ex-PM Gordon Brown has backed…Jeremy CorbynJoe Mellor

His "get even!' principle at work here.If he is able to pull this off then all the "deficit too small!" people are going to look like idiots as the deficit will collapse and US economy will increase growth thru exporting or reduced importing in the GDP.Also, note the Trump people have stopped using the figure of speech "Asia-Pacific" and are now instead using "Indo-Pacific".  Reaching a bit further west  bringing in India now. Trump at #APEC: "I will make bilateral trade agreements with...

I'd say not clear yet in the period of this diagram.What is clear is you can see how this flattened out during the 'debt ceiling!' thing this year, March 15 thru Sept. 7ish as reserve 'drain' mechanism was rendered inoperative and risk-free assets were piling up.BTW now 30 days away from end of current 'debt ceiling!' suspension on Dec. 8th.  If they use the 'extraordinary measures' again it won't last as long as the Fed will be at the same time letting its holdings of UST securities roll...