Mike Norman Economics

The Guardian's Gary Younge writes a polemic article on America's gun laws, but he makes some good points, I thought.   In a society that fetishises self-reliance, the gun speaks to rugged individualism – each person should be responsible for saving themselves. In a political culture that favours small government, the gun stands as a counterpoint to a lumbering and inefficient state – defend yourself, because by the time the police get there you’ll be dead. It underpins a certain sense of...

Some  links.The Case for Concerted ActionAnthony Thirlwall On How He Became A KaldorianV. Ramanan

This is a very interesting interview covering many topics although they get a bit absurd when  suggesting that there may be a link between the Las Vegas Shooting and the Catalan Referendum.  At one point in the interview Richie Allen and Tony Gosling talk about how the company KPMK audited HBOS accounts and put £48 billion in the wrong column which made HBOS look like a viable company when it was sold off when it was actually a basket case. British justice took ten years to make a decision...

Tracing the growth of corporatocracy. CounterpunchHow Big Corporations Game Our Democracy Into Their Plutocracy Ralph Nader

It’s part and parcel of the “Russia-gate” hoax.… The Powers That Be have always hated the internet, and now they’re finally making some progress in their campaign to have it reined in. Using the “Russia threat” and Hillary Clinton’s loss to appeal to those who used to be called “liberals,” they’re teaming up with neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and foreign-funded (!) outfits like the Alliance to Secure Democracy to achieve their longtime dream of regulating internet content. And they...

Alternet has gone public with concerns about the way Google and Facebook have limited traffic to its website and, more generally, undermined access to progressive and independent media. Its traffic from web searches has dropped precipitously – by 40 per cent – since Google introduced new algorithms in the summer. Other big progressive sites have reported similar, or worse, falls. More anecdotally, and less significantly, I have noticed on both my own website and Facebook page a sharp drop in...

The United States is No. 1 at hacking, mainly because we're always pushing the limits of what can be done. The proof? U.S. hackers seldom get caught For a significant part of my career I taught hacking (at Foundstone and other computer security education companies) around the world. I can tell you how well people from different countries hacked, how good they were overall, and what they excelled at. Bear with me while I indulge in geographic stereotyping. Armies of hackers I can't...

The idea that the euro has "failed" is dangerously naive. The euro is doing exactly what its progenitor – and the wealthy 1%-ers who adopted it – predicted and planned for it to do. That progenitor is former University of Chicago economist Robert Mundell. The architect of "supply-side economics" is now a professor at Columbia University, but I knew him through his connection to my Chicago professor, Milton Friedman, back before Mundell's research on currencies and exchange rates had produced...

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, attacks against the Syrian army have been carried out from the 50-kilometer zone around al-Tanf on the Syrian-Jordanian border TASSUS al-Tanf base used by IS groups for attacks against Syria — Defense Ministryee alsoalsoSputnik InternationalPentagon Calls Russian MoD Remarks on US Coalition's Aims in Syria 'Ridiculous'

In depth reporting on Bana that doesn't appear in Western MSM.Who is telling the truth? You decide.SouthFrontAleppo’s Propaganda Princess Releases Book About Syrian War