Mike Norman Economics

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...

Let''s get a 3. handle on this and see how the monetarists react.  They have to start raising and asset reductions sooner or later, but these 2. handles on their "inflation!" have not been enough to lead them to significant action so far.UK inflation measured by Consumer Price Index rose to 2.9% in August, up from 2.6% in July, figures show https://t.co/gEgNb3BF4B— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) September 12, 2017

Yeah let's keep rates at permanent ZIRP good idea!Down $20 billion, Boeing stuffs pension fund with its own shares https://t.co/KvDDWYqGRm via @k_chiglinsky pic.twitter.com/QwaoCn0jIM— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) September 15, 2017 Help from higher risk free rates is on the way this effect of the moron ZIRP policy should start to go away soon.

Russia will become world's second largest gold producer with the launch of a major mining and smelting facility in the Far East, said the press service of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East Wednesday. After the facility was launched by Russia's gold producer Poluys to develop the Natalka gold deposit in the country's Magadan Region, the volume of ore processing will exceed 10 million tons per year, while the volume of gold production will be 13 tons per year, which...

A new report by a retired IT executive at IBM, debunks the claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign by hacking Democratic computers and circulating damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The report, which is titled “The Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge“, provides a rigorous examination of the wobbly allegations upon which the hacking theory is based, as well as a point by point rejection of the primary claims which, in the final analysis, fail...

The world’s top oil importer, China, is preparing to launch a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan and convertible into gold, potentially creating the most important Asian oil benchmark and allowing oil exporters to bypass U.S.-dollar denominated benchmarks by trading in yuan, Nikkei Asian Review reports. The crude oil futures will be the first commodity contract in China open to foreign investment funds, trading houses, and oil firms. The circumvention of U.S. dollar...