Mike Norman Economics

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a conciliatory solution toward resolving the crisis on the Korean peninsula, noting that the incorporation of North Korea into joint development projects across the region could soothe the frayed nerves caused by the region’s militarization and the ratcheting-up of tensions. Such a move would not only serve mutually-beneficial economic interests of the divided Korean peninsula and Russia, Putin noted, but would help build trust and strengthen...

You'll want to read the whole post. It's short.  Visual Capitalist2,000 Years of Economic History in One ChartJeff Desjardins

An international campaign by capitalist politicians and media has been unleashed against president Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government. It has been used by Labour’s Blairista right wing to try to weaken Jeremy Corbyn. In Spain, the spectre of Venezuela has been held up as a warning of what a Podemos-led government would mean. The close links of Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias to Hugo Chávez regime in the past has facilitated this idea. Across Latin America this campaign has been conducted...

I posted recently on the increasing influence of corporate money in academia, specifically the new Marriner Eccles center funded by the Koch brothers at the University of Utah. The piece by David V. Johnson in the Baffler on this subject is worth reading. As he notes, the new breed of private money goes beyond what they used to do in the past, trying to directly influence what kind of research, the curriculum and what ideas should be disseminated, and, indirectly who should be hired and...

If you’re in the vicinity of New York City at the end of October, Levy scholars Randall Wray and Stephanie Kelton are taking part in a public meeting organized by the National Jobs for All Coalition. The meeting is part of a series of public events focused on the legacy of New Deal.... Multiplier Effect  Event: Strategizing a New New DealMichael Stephens

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on IT companies in Russia to use domestically developed software, saying that soon the use of such foreign products will no longer be possible in certain sectors due to "high security risks." China has been working on this at least since 2014 according to news reports then.RTPutin: Russia to move away from foreign software for sake of security

... a government’s monetary sovereignty creates a potential for meaningful social progress. But it is only a potential, and can only be fulfilled through genuine democracy conducted by an informed citizenry. Right now, it is perhaps fair to say that an informed citizenry and, as a consequence, genuine democracy, are almost entirely lacking in the specific area of macroeconomics. At minimum, an informed citizenry would understand that, due to monetary sovereignty:If we can do it, we can...

This is a no-brainer. Large-scale money laundering. The push to delete cash to control crime is quickly being met by the rise in use of blockchain "currencies."As Yves Smith has said, "prosecution futures."Liberty Blitzkrieg The 1% Has Started To Embrace Bitcoin - Why It Matters Michael Krieger

So what happened today? Well, the PBOC has just U-turned, and has given a greenlight to the same FX speculators whom it criticized (remember the Chinese anti-Soros media campaign), slammed, punished, and in some cases arrested, to now short the Yuan once more.On the surface, this is a brilliant solution to Beijing's problems: it lowers the Yuan on one hand, and on the other, it's not the PBOC who is manipulating the currency, it's the evil speculators who are "guilty."… Now the question,...

More grand chessboard.More interference in countries most Americans don't know where are and some they never even heard of. Why? "China." Translation: Maintaining permanent US global hegemony. CounterpunchAmerica’s Long War: US Tightens the Noose on ChinaSean Stinson