Mike Norman Economics

A little wonkish for general reading, but a good backgrounder if you are following this, or if you just want to get up to speed on it. It shows just how endemic cyber hacking, cyber espionage and cyber warfare is, and how difficult it is to determine who is doing what to whom in the cyberworld, since "everyone is doing it." Even Mossad is involved in this one. Kaspersky has the reputation of being the best in providing security, but Mossad hacked them.Ars TechnicaKaspersky: Yes, we obtained...

The financial crisis has led many to question the legitimacy of capitalism. The verdict, 10 years on, has not been favourable. In an opinion poll by YouGov, three-quarters of German adults, two-thirds of Britons and over half of Americans believe that, “the poor get poorer and the rich get richer in capitalist economies”. Their sense of injustice is not only a reaction to bank bailouts, years of austerity and corporate scandals. The challenge is fundamental. There is a growing awareness in...

Masha Gessen? (rolls eyes)I can't wait to see the reactions to this.Masha Gessen is the epitome of the liberal Russian russophobe.QuartzA longtime critic of Vladimir Putin just won the US National Book Award Thu-Huong Ha

“It said that the mercantilist, Confucianist, authoritative system of China is the victor over the Judeo-Christian, liberal democratic free-market West; that their system is better, and they go over how it is better and how they’ve beaten us,” [Steve Bannon] argued.He warned that there are five things that China is going to achieve in the next few years, and if America does not thwart them, “China will in fact be a hegemonic power.” They are:The rollout of fifth generation mobile technology...

The Chinese elite has recognized and acknowledged that the CCP has a corruption problem. Western elites, not so much. There is another interesting point made in the article. During the 19th Party Congress last month, Yang was asked about the anti-corruption drive and how to achieve a balance between human rights and party discipline. Yang replied that, having worked in the Tibet Autonomous Region for many years, human rights was an “interesting question”. He recounted a conversation...

As an outsider, one can only revise down one's opinion of the academic standards of mainstream economists. We have an intellectual debate in which one side refuses to admit the existence of the debate in the first place. I am not an expert on the scientific method, but it seems to me that is not how it is supposed to work. Bond Economics  How Not To Defend DSGE Macro Brian Romanchuk

On Wednesday, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned US envoy David Kostelancik to formally complain about Washington’s new $700,000 initiative to fund rural media outlets in the country. The program provides technical and financial assistance to these media outlets, granting them increased exposure as well as small grants.… Of course, there is some irony in the United States — a country that itself has experienced a precipitous drop in press freedom, from 20th in 2010 to 43rd in 2017...

Russiagate but not Israelgate. Hypocrisy about "foreign influence"?Sic Semper Tyrannis Harper: A Reminder Of The Obscene Power Of The Israel Lobby

I have long been an originalist, strict construction libertarian believing as did Mr. Jefferson (the slave owner and sage) that "the best government is the least possible." The trick being to discern what the least possible might be.Therefore I find it odd that I am somewhat disturbed by what is being said on the Democratic Party side of Congress, in the MSM... Sic Semper TyrannisAnd now, a civics seminar ... Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.) At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang...

Steve Keen explains why austerity doesn't work and can never work - you can't save yourself to growth. He say's how the Tories have committed themselves so much to austerity now that they can't pull out and admit their mistake, so only the Labour will be able end austerity. [embedded content]