Mike Norman Economics

At the centre of Macron’s policy is an attempt to re-assert French influence in its former colonial sphere in Syria, North Africa, and the Sahel. “Two great zones are the focus of our efforts in the struggle against terror: Syria and Iraq on the one hand, and Libya and the Sahel on the other,” he said. He announced that he would “soon” travel to Ouagadougou, the capital of the former French colony of Burkina Faso, which has played a significant role in the French war in neighbouring Mali....

Ayn Rand made her mark by writing and lecturing on a philosophy called Objectivism. It’s a philosophy that flips upside down everything that most Americans hold dear. Under Objectivism, greed is good, selfishness is noble, helping one’s fellow human beings is for suckers and an outright evil. The philosophy also holds that big government is bad and obscenely rich corporate titans are the real heroes of society. (See related articles below.) The Koch brothers’ network of billionaires has...

US-Russian relations continue to sour. Cold War 2.0 looms as both sides arm up and beef up their nuclear capabilities.ReutersU.S. retaliates against Russia, orders closure of consulate, annexes Yeganeh TorbatiSee alsoRTDiplomatic war: From Obama’s expulsion of Russian embassy staff to Trump’s closure of SF consulateChina says it will never allow war or chaos on its doorstep as tensions escalate on Korean Peninsula It is crucial that unlike many previous statements, today’s was made not by...

Quanta Magazine recently spoke with Goldenfeld about collective phenomena, expanding the Modern Synthesis model of evolution, and using quantitative and theoretical tools from physics to gain insights into mysteries surrounding early life on Earth and the interactions between cyanobacteria and predatory viruses. A condensed and edited version of that conversation follows. Quanta MagazineSeeing Emergent Physics Behind EvolutionInterview with Nigel Goldenfeld, Swanlund Endowed Chair and...

Robert Solow destroys economics as a hard science. Of course, he is not alone in this. Heterodox economists have been pointing this out for a long time, and so have observers from other disciplines looking in. And this is not the only reason. For example, key terms are poorly specified as shown by the Cambridge capital controversy that Solow was involved in with Samuelson on the losing side. Business schools figure this out some time ago and switched to the case method.Lars P. Syll’s...

When I started studying economics at University, I had a lecturer in microeconomics who, thankfully, was an antagonist of the mainstream micro mantra about perfect markets and their capacity to deliver optimal, efficient outcomes for all. She is no longer with us but her early teachings have stayed with me (thanks Kaye!). She used to say that the market was like a voting system where the votes were cast in dollars. The rich have more votes and can sway the outcome in their favour. At the...

It seems like it is part of human nature to want to belong to and participate in a nonhierarchical group to share our deepest political and spiritual values and beliefs. Perhaps that is why many of us long to be part of a tribe, ultimately a network of tribes or intentional communities.In mainline Christian churches, I can enjoy the singing and music, sometimes the sermon, if I ignore the theistic doctrines and the neo-conservative or neo-liberal foreign policies of the members shared...

Calling out US hypocrisy and fake outrage.Zero HedgeUS Coalition Attacks ISIS Convoy, Accuses Syria And Russia Of "Terror Transfer" Tyler Durden See also AP correctly reports on what Nasrallah said about the deal involving a prisoner exchange, and then muddles it by reporting on "Turkish-backed Syrian forces" that have nothing to do with either Hezbollah or ISIS firing on US troops.  AP NewsThe Latest: Hezbollah defends transfer of IS militants

Everyone is familiar with the nostrum, "correlation is not causality." Simply put, correlation can potentially identify input-output relationships with a certain degree of probability. But the relationship is a "black box."Causal explanation involves opening the box and examining the contents. Correlation shows that something happens; causality in science explains how it happens, elucidating transmission in terms of operations. In formal systems the operators are rules, e.g., expressible...

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