Mike Norman Economics

Taking the long view with central planning. Achieving the lofty development goals China's leaders have set will not be easy. But with a clear development blueprint and a powerful leader whose political clout all but guarantees continued reform, the country seems to be in a strong position to sustain its unprecedented economic success in the coming decades.  Short article for addressing such a large undertaking, but it's comprehensive. The Chinese leadership knows where it wants to go. Now...

On August 19, 1964, the then US President Lyndon B. Johnson established the – National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress. He established the Commission in response to growing concern during the deep 1960-61 recession that the unemployment had been created by the pace of technological change. Ring a bell! He wanted to an inquiry to explore this issue and come up with recommendations on how to deal with the possibility that automation was wiping out jobs and the...

In other words, it is not the behaviour of the individual agents that determines the model’s overall structure, nor even the structure of the preference ranking. Instead it is the macro requirement for a particular structure which dictates the behaviour attributed to the individual agents.[2] The “purpose” of this “particular, useful structure” is to rationalize the macro “conclusion” assumed at the beginning of the exercise. The resulting model shows micro phenomena determining macro...

From the informal meetings it looks like Trump and Putin definitely get along with each other. It's good to see it.  [embedded content]    At the 2017 APEC Summit, held between 10 – 11 November in Vietnam, a bilateral meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump was supposed to take place. Russia’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that “while both sides were trying to organise the meeting, the United States offered a time and place that only suited them.” "The only time proposed...

Fun.Lars P. Syll's BlogOn Econs and HumansLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

About Afghanistan. There is method to the madness of staying in Afghanistan. The US deep state doesn't want to actually "win" the war, which would be a reason to leave and "save money,", since continued US military presence there is essential in terms of geopolitics and geostrategy, which is focused on US hegemony. Afghanistan is a key piece in controlling Central Asia and the Eurasian landmass. This is a part of a proxy war with Russia and China. Tom DispatchNever-ending war:...

Scott Adams grades Donald Trump in key areas. A few A's and one F'.Dilbert BlogPresident Trump’s 2017 Report Card (first draft)Scott Adams

Greece will be in a “non-functional condition” until 2020, predicts the advisor to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Yiğit Bulut, who characterizes the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as a “tool of the imperialists”. Speaking on the state television programme “Deep Analysis” he gave the example of Greece to show the consequences of imperialism for global political developments.”They sold off everything. The banks have passed into the hands of the Germans. They have been left with...

Good summary of the witch hunting to date. While he doesn't use the McGovern "soft coup" to characterize what is happening, he implies it. It's really about Trump rather than Russia. The US deep state has always had it in for Russia and won't rest until the US controls it, this is really aimed at neutralizing the president and continuing the effort to remove him from power. Perhaps you saw "news" reports last week calling William Binney, formerly the NSA's technical director for world...

A cursory glance at the World’s leading tax havens illustrates the hypocrisy of politicians getting wound up about the revelations in the recently released Paradise Papers and the Panama Papers before them. Many of the havens are within the direct legislative jurisdiction of nations such as the US (which is itself a tax haven) and the UK, for example. And we should not forget that Luxembourg, Switzerland are key European homes of tax avoidance. Remember that the current President of the...