Mike Norman Economics

Today, we have empirics, and what we know can best be found in John Zaller’s The Nature & Origins of Mass Opinion. In brief, Zaller summarizes the academic literature on public opinion: There is a high variance in political awareness around a very low mean. Public opinion is extremely unstable on matters large and small. Wildly different findings can result from the same survey sample by simply ordering or framing questions differently. There are numerous examples of dramatic shifts in...

The reported US supplies of Soviet-era munitions to Syrian rebels not only "openly violates" legal norms against financing terrorism, but also risks igniting a greater conflict across the Middle East, Scott Bennett, former US Army psychological operations officer and State Department counterterrorism contractor, told Sputnik. Untraceable Weapons  Earlier, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) revealed in a report...

Link to report. The Case for Concerted Action UNCTAD On The Case For A Global New Deal V. Ramaman

This made me laugh, Sir Michael Fallon, the British Defence Secretary, told the BBC: “The US is fully entitled to defend its own territory, to defend its bases and to look after its people, but this involves us, London is closer to North Korea and its missiles than Los Angeles.”  But US bases are all over the world in far off lands pointing missiles at any country that is not a vassal state of the US, so who's the threat to world peace? Paul Craig Roberts had this to say:Behold a Pale Horse,...

Fast forward to today, when according to a statement on the Venezuela oil ministry, the country's weekly crude oil and petroleum basket "will be published in Chinese Yuan" - oddly, not in Euros as the WSJ hinted - going forward. We can only assume that Venezuela avoided the European currency on concerns that Brussels may follow in D.C.'s footsteps and impose financial sanctions on the Maduro regime next. Which meant that the only "safe" currency to transact in, was that of the country's two...

This is about the Russian economy, not just the rate reduction. Significant for those following Russia, the Russian economic outlook, and the RUB. Russia FeedRussia’s Central Bank cuts key rate to 8.5% AlexanderAlsoRussia’s Central Bank says oil price could sink in 2018

The post fails to distinguish between public and private debt, but otherwise of interest. One of the reasons that the Russian economy "looks better" is the conservative monetary policy run that the central bank is running and the conservative fiscal policy that the government is running. Putin backs both. Russia could be doing a whole lot better running a looser monetary and fiscal stance, but then it would not "look as good" to international investors, which Russia has no need to...

Looks like the central bank (PBOC) is asserting its control of currency. As Yves Smith says, "prosecution futures."Ars TechnicaIt looks like China is shutting down its blockchain economy Timothy B. Lee

Four-part series. Video and transcript.TRNNEconomic Development for Transformative Structural Change

Every child begins their journey through life with an incredible potential: a creative mindset that approaches the world with curiosity, with questions, and with a desire to learn about the world and themselves through play.However, this mindset is often eroded or even erased by conventional educational practices when young children enter school.The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking is often cited as an example of how children’s divergent thinking diminishes over time. 98% of children in...