Mike Norman Economics

The point to take away from this quick review of the data is that the American economy is so integrated with China that China has become the marginal price-setter for large parts of the US economy. The Trump tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports failed to slow, let alone reverse, America’s dependence on China. The United States doesn’t have the capital stock or skilled labor to meet a surge in demand, and Americans paid up for Chinese goods because they couldn’t get them anywhere...

Strategic Culture FoundationWar Inc. Throws an Invasion Party and No One Shows UpPepe Escobarhttps://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/02/16/war-inc-throws-an-invasion-party-and-no-one-shows-up/Why Is the U.S. Peddling Dangerous Lies About a ‘Russian Invasion’ of Ukraine? (The US tried to look strong and ended up looking foolish?)Robert Bridgehttps://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/02/17/why-is-us-peddling-dangerous-lies-about-russian-invasion-ukraine/Irrussianality (deservedly)MOCKING...

Christine LaGarde, president of the ECB, goes all in "MMT" in the sense of the basic principle being that a currency sovereign has a monopoly over the currency as the sole currency issuer. In the EZ, that would be the ECB, to whom European nations have ceded currency sovereignty by treaty.Progressive PulseMore confirmation that Central Banks create moneyPeter Mayhttp://www.progressivepulse.org/economics/more-confirmation-that-central-banks-create-money

I see no other potentials in the short term but additional price increases unless Russia does an about-face on Ukraine. Even then, we’ll still see seasonality push prices up, so motorists should be ready to dig deeper," said Patrick De Haan, Gasbuddy head of petroleum analysis....Of course no one know where energy prices are going to be in the future, but...on one hand, Biden continues to (over)hype the Russian threat, which is adding a premium to energy prices and contributing to inflation....

Moon of Alabama ("Putin" punks the West?)Happy 'Russian Invasion' Dayhttps://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/russian-invasion-day.htmlTASS (Russian state media)Kremlin points to high probability of Kiev unleashing military attack on Donbasshttps://tass.com/world/1404271China blasts inflated war hype by US, notes harm to Ukraine’s socio-economic stabilityhttps://tass.com/world/1404223Disinformation around Ukraine outnumbered fakes on Syria — diplomat [Maria...

Inflation data in the United States came in surprisingly hot, and so rate hike chatter went off the charts. I think the idea of a “surprise” inter-meeting rate hike is silly in the context of modern Federal Reserve operating procedures, but I now see more chance of an initial 50 basis point rate hike in March as an attempt to assert dominance.Unless inflation cools a lot, the base case has to be that we are looking at 25 basis points per meeting (plus the wild card of a starting 50) for...

Important backgrounder including an historical account of how we got here. A bit longish but well worth the read for an American analysis that confronts a conventional narrative echoed in the corporate media that is naïve, biased or just made up, and based largely on mind-reading— Putin's, that is, but also "the Russian mindset."A lingering question remains. Did Washington’s alarmists really believe it themselves, or has consent been manufactured by a war scare whose utility they plainly...

. [embedded content]https://youtu.be/8nXz66Btfl0This is good!  The Chinese government was very lenient towards the Hong Kong protesters, even though many were rioting. 

It’s Wednesday and I have a lot on today. I was scanning some transcripts from the European Parliament today as part of a project I am embarking on to update my 2015 book – Eurozone Dystopia: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale (published May 2015). I have had lots of requests (including from publishers) to provide a revised version to take into account events since 2015, include Brexit and the pandemic. So my head is back in transcripts, hansard reports, and other official documents to...

Stephanie Kelton would probably have done some things differently, but she couldn’t have asked for a better political and economic backdrop for her new book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy. While the book is structured as a rebuttal to common misconceptions held by politicians and the general public about government finance, it is ultimately a plea to use permanent wartime mobilization for civilian ends.….Actually, the US has been on a...