Mike Norman Economics

Last December Congress passed a new law, promptly signed by then-President Barack Obama, that enacted an Orwellian amendment to the Defense Authorization Act of 2017. Called the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act, this measure tasks the State Department, in consultation with the Department of Defense, the director of national intelligence and an obscure government propaganda organization called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, to establish a “Center for Information Analysis...

[embedded content] Jake R. Morphonios is a Republican libertarian conspiracy theorist and I had to think twice about putting this one out because it's all here, the Rothschilds, Soros, John McCain, and the Khazar Jews, but leave that aside and I think he has researched his facts quite well for this video at least. I thought it was very interesting - and chilling - to see how the oligarchs work behind the scenes.I like the scene Jake R. Morphonios describes Putin's quarrel with Oleg...

Secret side agreements are a common maneuver by corporate law firms. Here’s how they work. An agreement that is legal and passes the smell test is drafted and submitted to a court or a regulatory body for public consumption. Then, a separate, secret side agreement is written and signed by both sides and it contains all of the smelly, shady, ethically questionable hard details on how the original agreement will be carried out.  Donna Brazile, the former interim Chair of the Democratic...

Keynote speech by Mr Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, at the 2017 Lujiazui Forum "Financial reform and steady development from a global perspective", Shanghai, 21 June 2017. Bank of International SettlementsZhou Xiaochuan: The opening-up of Chinese economy - from manufacturing industry to service industryKeynote speech by Mr Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, at the 2017 Lujiazui Forum "Financial reform and steady development from a global...

The rhetoric of ‘free markets’ is misleading. I certainly agree with this last point, as does anybody who (like me) has spent some time as an economic regulator (the UK Competition Commission in my case). Modern economies are highly regulated, and that goes for the Anglo-Saxons as much as anyone else. The Enlightened Economist Free’ markets Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of...

Epistemology rather than economics. Epistemological absolutism holds that there are absolute criteria and methods available for applying them to gain certain knowledge. Epistemological relativism holds that there are neither. Without getting into the weeds about this, suffice it to say that this epistemological distinction is not particularly relevant to the point that Professor Ruccio makes in the post, which revolves around mistaking ideology for fact. Here he is spot on and can be...

UK, not US. Few people had heard of Chris Heaton-Harris before October 2017. He is the Conservative MP for Daventry, a place most couldn’t pinpoint on a map. But he has now made himself notorious by writing to to a number of university Vice-Chancellors, asking for the names of the professors who are teaching about Brexit at their universities and copies of what they are teaching. On the surface, the MP’s letter is a simple information request. But it was not regarded as such by the people...

Professor Robinson considers Russiagate in the light of applying scientific method and finds the methodology wanting.IrrussianalityBasic scientific methodPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Not even Glenn Beck would draw so many far-fetched connections. This is my impression, too.Conventional economic studies are rigorous formally but based on questionable assumptions about the real world and little if any hard evidence.The sociology of Russiagate is similar in a different way since there is zero rigor. However, it is based on hugely ideological tacit assumptions and the conclusions are more allegation based on inference than chargeable offenses based on evidence.Both are just...

I take long-term historical studies like this is a large grain of salt, for lack of homogeneity and the difficulty in obtaining reliable data, for example, but it is interesting to look at anyway with caveats.What is probably most interesting about it now is that the Bank of England is apparently looking at this. Conclusion On aggregate, then, the past 30-odd years more than hold their own in the ranks of historically significant rate depressions. But the trend fall seen over this period...