Mike Norman Economics

It seems like it is part of human nature to want to belong to and participate in a nonhierarchical group to share our deepest political and spiritual values and beliefs. Perhaps that is why many of us long to be part of a tribe, ultimately a network of tribes or intentional communities.In mainline Christian churches, I can enjoy the singing and music, sometimes the sermon, if I ignore the theistic doctrines and the neo-conservative or neo-liberal foreign policies of the members shared...

Calling out US hypocrisy and fake outrage.Zero HedgeUS Coalition Attacks ISIS Convoy, Accuses Syria And Russia Of "Terror Transfer" Tyler Durden See also AP correctly reports on what Nasrallah said about the deal involving a prisoner exchange, and then muddles it by reporting on "Turkish-backed Syrian forces" that have nothing to do with either Hezbollah or ISIS firing on US troops.  AP NewsThe Latest: Hezbollah defends transfer of IS militants

Everyone is familiar with the nostrum, "correlation is not causality." Simply put, correlation can potentially identify input-output relationships with a certain degree of probability. But the relationship is a "black box."Causal explanation involves opening the box and examining the contents. Correlation shows that something happens; causality in science explains how it happens, elucidating transmission in terms of operations. In formal systems the operators are rules, e.g., expressible...

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Important from the perspective of philosophy of science.Perhaps the most significant line is the last one: What is needed is new mathematics that will render these notions scientific,” he said. Then, perhaps, we’ll understand what we’ve been arguing about for so long. Recall that Newton had to develop the calculus as a new mathematical notation in order to express his discoveries in classical physics.Quanta MagazineQuantum Theory Rebuilt From Simple Physical Principles Philip Ball

It would be interesting to compare India's development with that of China over this period, which is roughly equivalent to China's period of modernization. Arguably, China's rise under communism began in a worse position that India's at the end of the British Raj. Is there is a lesson about socio-economic systems to be gleaned from such a comparison? And political economy.Real-World Economics Review BlogThe Indian Economy: 70 years after Independence C. P. Chandrasekhar | Professor at the...

Chinese R&D investment has grown remarkably over the past two decades. It is now the second-largest performer in terms of R&D spending, on a country basis, and accounts for 20 percent of total world R&D expenditure, with the rate of R&D investment growth greatly exceeding that of the U.S. and the EU.… This steep improvement in S&T performance has been underpinned by significant strides in science and engineering education. China is now the world’s number one...

This is an important article socially, politically and economically based on its implications. While there is a "digital divide" between analog people and digitally capable people, the more significant divide is between those that grew up in the transition to the digital age, with the introduction of mass computing in around 1980. The Apple II was introduced in 1977. The most significant digital divide generationally is between analog natives and digital natives. Now a further...

Imagine we lived in a feudal society in which lords exploited peasants. A defender of the system might argue that wealthy lords perform a useful service; they protect their peasants from invasion and theft thus giving them security and a little prosperity. And competition between lords should improve these services; bad lords will find their lands and peasants seized by better lords who become wealthier as a result.Such an argument would, however, miss the point. The case against feudalism...

Although I do not bill myself as a forecaster, my generic inflation forecast has remained remarkably accurate: expect it to stick around 2%, barring a recession. Although this has been the correct forecast for years, it does not match what people want to hear: higher inflation (or deflation!) is around the corner! (This generic forecast is for the United States and Canada, but I will stick to U.S. data for this article.) To a certain extent, the entire social position of mainstream...