Mike Norman Economics

As an historian, I am somewhat appalled at the inability of economists, including those on this blog to get the history of their own discipline straight.  The obsession has been with neoclassical economic’s attempt to turn economics into a physico-mathematical discipline as Walras phrased it, and the economists usually discuss this attempt within the historical context of their discipline pre-1945, with references, to  Walras, Marshall, Keynes, and others. It  became clear to me over...

Backgrounder on Spain and Catalonia. The intractability of the political problem is that Catalonia – the most European of all Spanish regions and historically in favor of republicanism and federalism – contests the very essence of the Spanish system. To scrap this outdated constitution – written immediately after Franco’s demise and drenched in amnesty for Franco-ists – is as important as self-determination. To say that the Bourbons face a legitimacy crisis is a major understatement....

This is pretty incendiary in that UN Ambassador Haley apparently went around US Secretary of State Tillerson. The question is who is running US foreign policy, the secretary of state or an ambassador?If this is true and Tillerson has any cojones, he will resign and let Trump appoint Haley, to whom he initially offered the position of secretary of state.At this point, Tillerson is not only damaging his reputation but he is also looking like a fool. He should bow out.Oh, and it gets worse....

Russia is rather drastically reducing its percentage of foreign reserves and increasing gold reserves in response to economic warfare aimed at destabilizing Russia.SputnikGold Rush: Russia Stockpiling Bullion Like There's no Tomorrow

Censorship moves into high gear as TPTB move to control the narrative. Russiagate is another instance of "disaster capitalism" with the Establishment attempting to seize control of the narrative that resulted from damaging revelations about the Clinton campaign. The new narrative is that the Russian government led by Vladimir Putin is nefariously using covert operations to undermine Western liberal democracy.Washington's BlogNYT: $100,000 Russian Facebook Political Ads Prove Censorship...

The voice of the Establishment speaks. Haass is president of CFR.Project SyndicateThe US Cannot Go It Alone On IranRichard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously served as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department (2001-2003), and was President George W. Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland and Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistancrossposted at Asia Times also Trump Is Strengthening Iran’s Radicals Abbas Milani

As a result, I would tend to suggest a slightly different definition that seems to work quite well today. The definition would be: neoliberalism is a political strategy promoting the interests of big money that utilises the economist’s ideal of a free market to promote and extend market activity and remove all ‘interference’ in the market than conflicts with these interests. This replaces a definition based on following an idea (the author’s market neoliberalism), by one of interests...

Looks like a pretty good article on the situation here at Health Affairs Blog.Trump's ending of the CSR payments might end up as fiscal stimulus via increased tax credits for resultant increases in qualifying premium payments.Excerpt: The Consequences Of Ending The CSR Payments  The effect of terminating the payments has been well analyzed, including a report from the Congressional Budget Office.  It will drive up premiums as insurers attempt to cover the cost of the reductions. As...

The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has completed trial runs on the algorithms needed for digital currency supply, taking it a step closer to addressing the technological challenges associated with digital currencies, according to a top official associated with the project. Yao Qian, director-general of the Institute of Digital Money at the PBOC, said China's central bank has successfully designed a prototype that can regulate the supply of its future digital fiat currency....

“It’s somebody’s money,” [House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark] Meadows told The Intercept after a House vote on the aid package this week. “It’s different if you could just print money and it didn’t come out of my pocket or your pocket. It comes out of the American taxpayer’s pocket… Where does this person think the money to pay taxes comes from if the state doesn't issue the currency first and only accepts its own currency in payment of obligations the state imposes?The InterceptFreedom...