Mike Norman Economics

Short and not wonkish. Worth a read. Information Transfer Economics My introductory chapter on economics Jason Smith

This will be the Sanders crew going full Robin Hood vs. the Graham crew going full libertarian... will be very frustrating to watch.JUST IN: Sens. Graham & Cassidy will debate Sens. Sanders & Klobuchar on health care in live CNN event, Monday 9p ET https://t.co/eLye3JeX4n pic.twitter.com/DiXyrimEfm— CNN (@CNN) September 21, 2017

How learning machines generalize by filtering the specific.Quanta Magazine New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep LearningNatalie Wolchover

Where did all the concern over deficits go? After two years of the media lamenting, worrying and feigning outrage over the cost of Bernie Sanders’ two big-budget items—free college and single-payer healthcare—the same outlets are uniformly silent, days after the largest military budget increase in history....  No write-ups worrying about the cost increase in the Washington Post or Vox or NPR. No op-eds expressing concern for “deficits” in the New York Times, Boston Globe or US News. No...

There's a lot to unpack about the newly formed Committee to Investigate Russia, which aims to "help Americans recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy." Perhaps its most striking feature is that no Russia experts are involved; that's a sign of the times... No experts needed other than in propaganda. … as another eminent Russia expert -- Mark Galeotti, who used teach at New York University and now works at the Institute of International...

I have a new article forthcoming in Development and Change, on the political economy of financialization, coauthored with Arjun Jayadev and Enno Schroeder. A chief role of finance in a capitalist system is to allocate financial capital efficiently and effectively. Finance is supposed to impose discipline on economics. Joseph Schumpter called bankers "the ephors of capitalism." The five ephor of ancient Sparta were magistrates that held power over the monarchical aspect Spartan...

This March, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won regional elections in four out of five states, including Uttar Pradesh (UP). This huge prize represents a qualitative advance for the party and the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar it represents, giving greater legitimacy to their long-term goal of establishing a Hindu state in all but name. Is India ceasing to be an outpost of liberal democracy and moving in the direction of theocratic nationalism? Something to keep an eye on.But economics is...

The Times carry water for the deep state and the military-industrial complex again. The New York Times (9/18/17) gave an enormous platform to a hawkish think tank that is funded by the US government and by top weapons corporations, letting it absurdly claim, without any pushback, that the gargantuan US military—by far the largest in the world—has been “underfunded.” On September 18, the Senate voted overwhelmingly (89 to eight) to pass an enormous, record-breaking $700 billion Pentagon...

The situation in Syria is reaching another critical point. There is an increased possibility of a large scale clash between U.S. and Russian forces. We had warned of such a clash over control of the rich fields east of Deir Ezzor. At least three incidents over the last days point to more significant escalations.... Moon of AlabamaSyria - Russia Accusing U.S. Of Attacks, Abduction Attempts, Team-play With Al-Qaeda b Fort RussRussia: We will attack Kurdish-led forces in Deir Ezzor if they...

Continuation of part one, previously linked to here at MNE. Asia TimesUS the likely loser of trade war with ChinaKen Moak