Mike Norman Economics

At some point, everyone reaches a crossroads in life: Do you decide to take that job and move to a new country, or stay put? Should you become a parent, or continue your life unencumbered by the needs of children? Instinctively, we try to make these decisions by projecting ourselves into the future, trying to imagine which choice will make us happier. Perhaps we seek counsel or weigh up evidence. We might write out a pro/con list. What we are doing, ultimately, is trying to figure out...

Backgrounder on the Democratic Party abandoning of the New Deal and trying to capture the center by moving right. The post doesn't mention it but this began under Jimmy Carter. The Bonddad Blog"The Changing of the Guard:" the prescient 1980 book that foretold neoliberalismNew Deal democrat

Congress has 12 working days to raise the nation's debt ceiling when it returns in September. Failure ot raise the debt limit would cause severe economic and political consequences. Negotiations have been sluggish, with one Democratic aide saying there are currently "no talks" ongoing. Tidbit: "With President Trump, debt ceiling options like the Platinum Coin and the 14th Amendment — while unlikely — are now at least a possibility," said Chris Kruger, an analyst at Cowen Washington...

North Korea was so devastated by the 1950 war that it now has a nuclear weapon and a crazed leader because the North Koreans had been driven mad by the US mass bombing. Jimmy Dore really nails home the brutality of the West (as the ruling class of the West are all complicit). The US is on a rampage, or Trump's team is, going after every country that isn't part of the US hegemony while the vassal states of Europe cheer on.General Douglas McArthur had this to say about the Korean War (from the...

Critical realists share a rejection of the fact-value distinction as a fundamental criterion of scientific rationality -- and rightly so (link). They believe that social research and theorizing involve value commitments all the way down. Further, they commonly believe that good social science should lead to improvement in the world and in our system of moral judgments. So far, so good. But some critical realists think that this points to "moral realism" as well as scientific realism. Moral...

Comparison and contrast of  Ferdinand Lassalle, Mikhail Bakunin, and Karl Marx stated simply. The Real MovementRethinking Marx’s Grand StrategyJehu

Our guy.Angry Arab News ServiceThis is the vision of Muhammad bin Salman (those posts are not funded by Gulf embassies in DC) Assad Abu Khalil | Professor of Political Science, California State University, Stanislausalso This view is rarely represented in reports by Western correspondents in Beirut "“Israel caricatures Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation,” says Rifaat Nasrallah, the Christian militia’s leader (and no relation of Hassan). “But the resistance is not some external...

The Dalai Lama and a group of neuroscientists from Russia have agreed to put their heads together in the study of human conscience, the impact of meditation, neurobiology and cognitive psychology for the sake of peace and happiness for all. Sputnik International Dalai Lama Teams Up With Russian Scientists to Find Recipe of Global Happiness

Backgrounder. EG: Because while there is a state reaction taking place, there is repression with tear gas and rubber bullets, you’re not seeing the other side of it, which is that those are not exactly peaceful democratic protests. There are smaller factions. I mean, there are parts of the opposition in Venezuela that act within a democratic framework, but there is a very violent faction that’s gotten out of control. It’s anarchical. I mean, they where they’re using Molotov cocktails,...

The censorship algorithms rolled out by Google no doubt figured prominently in Mattis’ discussions with tech executives. The nominal purpose of his visit, however, was to integrate Silicon Valley firms even more closely into the booming and lucrative business of waging war. On Thursday, Mattis met with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the tech giant’s headquarters in Seattle. On Friday, he spoke at the headquarters of Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DUIX), a Defense Department unit located...