Mike Norman Economics

Not just e-commerce that's changing the world.  Social networks are proliferating and expanding, and it is affecting how people meet. An obvious way to test this is through investigating online dating, for which there is ample data. Online dating sites are obviously targeted at people meeting. This has implications for many other social media venues as well. More evidence that the Internet is changing everything. Distance is shrinking, not only in terms of separation in space but also...

Backgrounder.War On The RocksThe Growing Danger of a U.S. Nuclear First Strike on North Korea Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, and Dr. Nora Bensahel, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, School of International Service, American University. Both also serve as Nonresident Senior Fellows at the Atlantic Council. See alsoNATO’s Expanding Military Exercises Are Sending Risky Mixed Messages Ralph S. Clem | Emeritus Professor of Geography at Florida...

A key distinction between propaganda and journalism is that manipulative propaganda relies on exaggeration and deceit while honest journalism provides context and perspective. But what happens when the major news outlets of the world’s superpower become simply conveyor belts for warmongering propaganda?That is a question that the American people now face as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and virtually the entire mainstream media hype ridiculously minor allegations about...

Press reports indicate that later this week President Trump will “decertify” the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), relying on a clause in the relevant review legislation that permits the president to make such a declaration even if Iran is fully complying with the accord. That Trump has decided on this course has nothing to do with the terms of the JCPOA, with Iran, or with Iranian actions. He has not advanced a convincing case, or even a coherent...

Backgrounder on liberalism in Russia. Liberalism is chiefly confined to Moscow and St. Petersburg, but its greatest strength is the "fifth column" within the Russian government. Part of the Russian establishment is sympathetic to the liberals, and this is no secret. More precisely, one could say that liberals even make up part of the ruling elite. The liberals have the financial and economic wing of government in their hands, and wield partial influence over the spheres of ideology,...

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