Mike Norman Economics

China bought 90,000 robots in 2016, accounting for almost a third of the global total, and the robot revolution may raise China's economic competitiveness, according to a report released this week by Bloomberg Intelligence. China.org.cnChina on rapid progress of robotization: study Xinhua

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel is prepared to intervene in Syria to counteract the Iranian influence in the conflict. Moscow, which views Iran as key to resolving the crisis, said it will note Israeli interests.When the two leaders met in Sochi on Wednesday, Netanyahu told Putin that any peace deal in Syria must entail the full withdrawal of any Iranian forces from the area. "Iran is already well on its way to controlling Iraq, Yemen...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has been in Florida to meet Venezuelan opposition leaders, capping off his tour of Latin America last week where he sought support against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.... Pence, for his part, continued to repeat the White House position that the democratically-elected government in Caracas resembled a “dictatorship,” and that there was “more to come” in terms of sanctions. Soon after visiting the house of worship, Pence also made his presence...

Chris Williams reviews Marx and the Earth: An Anti-Critique by Paul Burkett and John Bellamy Foster, Haymarket Books, 2017.... As shown by Foster and Burkett, Marx and Engels believed that to be truly free, humanity not only needed to overcome the alienation of labor but simultaneously our alienation from nature, both bestowed on us by capitalism Capitalism privileges property ownership over people and the environment. Marx and Engels go far beyond a mere utilitarian conception of nature...

The deregulation winds blowing through Washington could add $27 billion of gross profit at the six largest U.S. banks, lifting their annual pretax income by about 20%. American BankerBig U.S. banks could see profit jump 20% with deregulation Bloomberg

A good friend sent me a document that was released under the US Central Intelligence Agency’s rules about archives. The CIA has established a fabulous ‘Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room’ where all sorts of stuff is released after they deem it benign to current security concerns. The 1985 CIA document – France: Defection of the Leftist Intellectuals – written by CIA operatives, provides an analytical summary of the leading lights in the French left-wing intellectual thought...

Russia-watcher Miriam Elder noted in a piece on BuzzFeed that Putin's response and other statements he has made about Ukraine in the past reflect some of the arguments put forward by Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in a 1990 essay titled "Rebuilding Russia." Radio Free Europe/Radio LibertyIs Putin 'Rebuilding Russia' According To Solzhenitsyn's Design? Robert Coalson

In sum, while Donald Trump, the cultural warrior, is failing as President on the economic front, not helping get us to the 3 or 4% growth he promised, he isn’t cratering the economy yet either. A US debt default or a military war could certainly change that though. The US economy has been resilient. We are now back to 2% growth after a mid-cycle pause due to the (partial) bursting of the shale oil investment bubble. But, since we are in the ninth year of this economic expansion, you have...

M&A rather than IPOs, stock buybacks. Primary investment is lagging. The environment for investment must be addressed. Deregulation for its own sake. Removing bank regulation was a factor in the financial crisis. Regulation needs to be revisited from the perspective of lessons learned. Control fraud and criminogenic environment were promoted by hands-off policy in regulation and oversight. Well-Functioning markets require appropriate regulation and supervision. Wall Street On...

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Chinese and Japanese media in an interview that Moscow is certain the United States will attempt to meddle in the forthcoming Russian presidential election."We’ve got used to US meddling. We’ve learned to live with it. The same applies to the tapping of telephones by US secret services," Ryabkov said."The one who is unaware of this is an absolutely naive person who lives on a different planet and does not understand what’s what," he continued.He...