Mike Norman Economics

Future economic historians may look back wryly at this period when we worshipped the divine right of capital while looking down on our ancestors who believed in the divine right of kings. I could not have said it better myself. Bourgeois liberalism as rule by the ownership class is as outrageous an assumption as rule by divine right.  The defenders of rule based on ownership of property is justified as "natural" rather than "divine." Both justifications are baseless assumptions...

North Korean hackers reportedly stole thousands of military documents detailing war plans of South Korea and the US, including plans to assassinate Kim Jong-un. South Korean lawmaker Rhee Cheol-hee made the claim on Tuesday, saying the information came from Seoul’s Defense Ministry, Yonhap reports. Rhee sits on the defense committee and is a member of the country’s ruling party. The South Korean Defense Ministry has not commented on the allegations.The data, said to be 235 gigabytes of...

This is about the Contra Rebels, drug smugling, and guns.German investigative journalist Patrik Baab and former Pentagon adviser Robert Harkavy have released a bombshell book, revealing the links between the murders of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, West German politician Uwe Barschel and former CIA director William Colby. Baab told Sputnik what their groundbreaking research has uncovered. Baab and Harkavy’s book, ‘In the Spider Web of the Secret Services: Why Were Olaf Palme, Uwe...

In the normal run of affairs, scholars working on Russia and Europe, or even on international affairs in general, would not comment of domestic US politics. But it is clear that the whole ‘Russiagate’ affair, alleging collusive behaviour between the eventual winner of the presidential election, Donald J. Trump, accompanied by charges of a systematic Russian attempt to help him through ‘hacking’ and media propaganda, is far from normal. As far as many international observers are concerned,...

You've heard about fake news. How about fake data?Stats BlogsAnalysts must reckon with the fake data menacejunkcharts

The video below is of a three-part presentation by Bill Mitchell, L. Randall Wray and Martin Watts concerning their forthcoming MMT textbook. Throughout the presentation and in the Q&A session that follows there are interesting observations on the current state of university economics and prospects for MMT and the economics discipline in general. The presentation was given at the First International Conference on Modern Monetary Theory…. heteconomistMitchell, Wray and Watts on Teaching...

There are a lot of tainted executives on Wall Street, still ensconced in their corner offices, who would like to redirect the public’s attention away from their serial crime spree and sacking of the U.S. economy by finding a new target at which Americans can focus their anger. While Russia may have attempted to illegally interfere in U.S. elections, it did not put a gun to Wall Street’s head and order it to transform America into a plutocracy for the one percent. Angry Americans are right...

The book is not an easy read but it is compelling. The last 80 pages are notes and bibliographies and the text is densely referenced. It is academic in its nature but determinedly so – as if MacLean knew that the neoliberals would come after her (as indeed they have) when it was published, attempting to undermine her thesis and destroy her reputation; and that providing links to all the background material and quotes was a vital defence against such future attempts to trash her work. A...

Chris Leslie tweeted yesterday that “Marxism should have no place in a modern Labour Party.” You’d expect me to disagree, and I do. But I want to point out that a Marxist point of view might be an asset for non-Marxists within the party. I say so for three reasons. First, Marxism draws our attention to the fact that politics is shaped by an economic base – by the nature of capitalism.... Herein lies another use of Marxism. It reminds us that the state in capitalism must fulfil two...

It wasn't long back and we were swinging in the trees but now we are designing nano-machines that will be able to produce an abundance of cheap, non polluting energy through cold fusion. Scientists don't know how it works and so are not able to develop mathematical theories for it, so they have to set up loads of experiments on a trail and error basis to find which combination works best.It would be good to get away from oil. [embedded content] HYDROTON A Model of Cold Fusion describes the...