Mike Norman Economics

The policy recommendations of NSC-68 have been widely discussed in scholarship, though avoiding the hysterical rhetoric. It reads like a fairytale: ultimate evil confronted by absolute purity and noble idealism. On one side is the “slave state” with its “fundamental design” and inherent “compulsion” to gain “absolute authority over the rest of the world,” destroying all governments and the “structure of society” everywhere. Its ultimate evil contrasts with our sheer perfection. The...

Zero Hedge (So we are all "terrorists" now for sharing information?)The Mind Control Police: The Government's War On Thought-Crimes & Truth-TellersJohn W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institutehttps://www.zerohedge.com/political/mind-control-police-governments-war-thought-crimes-truth-tellersElon Musk Accuses SEC Of "Harassment" And "Weaponizing" His 2018 Securities Fraud...

As expected, a rejection of the US response to Russia demand for security guarantees. In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees of ensuring our security by the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures....In addition, the US and UK continue to hype the threat of imminent Russian aggression. The situation looks bleak for peace, The US and UK appear...

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest labour force data today (February 17, 2022) – Labour Force, Australia – for January 2022. The situation is this: most states have now abandoned Covid restrictions and the virus has spread quickly and is now impacting significantly on the availability of workers. One standout in today’s data is the dramatic fall in monthly hours worked (-8.8 per cent). This puts paid to the notion spread by economists that there is a trade-off between...

The "do what everyone else is doing" strategy is NOT a winning strategy.

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...