Mike Norman Economics

Global Times (China accuses US of "instigating" war)Furthest from Ukraine frontline, Washington is most eager for war: Global Times editorialhttps://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1251577.shtmlTechnology Review (longish and detailed - science versus politics and propaganda)Meet the scientist at the center of the covid lab leak controversyJane Qiuhttps://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/09/1044985/shi-zhengli-covid-lab-leak-wuhan/Oilprice (Germany shutters its nuclear power stations, France...

Investors have gone over the deep end and lost touch with reality.

It's rather spooky! Whether you have an abiding interest in insect biology, or simply enjoy watching events that happen very, very quickly played back very, very slowly (and who doesn’t?), this short video from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University is a dazzlingly wild ride. Guided by the biologist Adrian Smith, who heads the lab, the film captures a series of 11 different winged insects –...

RT (US boxed in, in large part by domestic politics that obstructs dealing with reality.)Biden’s got just three options left on Ukraine, and none that’s palatable for himhttps://www.rt.com/news/548716-biden-policy-options-ukraine/The Beinart NotebookBiden’s CIA Director Doesn’t Believe Biden’s Story about UkrainePeter Beinarthttps://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/bidens-cia-director-doesnt-believeReminiscence of the FuturePepe Brutalizes (Justly) Macron.Andrei Martyanov, former USSR naval...

There has been some very interesting data and other research published recently that allow us to more fully understand what is driving the current inflationary pressures. There is a massive lobby now pushing the idea that the central bank bond-buying programs and the rising fiscal support during the pandemic are responsible. This sort of narrative is coming from the mainstream economists who are suffering attention-deficit disorders (even though they get the top platforms all the time to...

Why did the ex socialist European countries impose a very harsh capitalist system on themselves. Neoliberalism created winners and losers by about 50:50 in those countries, says Richard Wolff, but the winners took power and now they will not allow any socialism at all. Often, a very high percentage people in ex socialist countries want to return to the old system. A Patron of Economic Update asks: "How did the people of the USSR come to accept the radical shift back to capitalism? Did they...

From 'How China Escaped Shock Therapy' it seems that China may have considered shock therapy and neoliberalism, but they rejected it because of their long tradition of state ownership of many industries, which had served the country well for centuries. Russia is capitalist, but has a lot of state industries too because it feels under threat from the West, and although state industries may be less efficient, they are more robust. Because of Western antagonism Russia has aligned with China and...

Complete fucking scam… somebody got paid off by China….Meanwhile in China pic.twitter.com/umxOxnMFqf— Truckistan Amb. Poso 🏁 (@JackPosobiec) February 7, 2022

India PunchlineMoscow confronts ‘good cop, bad cop’M. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign ServiceReminiscence of the FutureThe Main Motif.Andrei Martyanov, former USSR naval officer and expert on Russian military and naval issueshttp://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-main-motif.htmlTASSRussian ambassador says Russia, US are in talks on world orderhttps://tass.com/politics/1400561Pravda.ru (Russian private media)Russia only has to do one thing to make Ukrainian army...

...I am now going to dump on MMT. First, I agree with Noah that it is a policy proposal not a theory at all. The proposal seems to be “deficits should be increased”. In particular, MMTers insist that MMT is not functional finance and they do not agree with Abba Lerner, who argued that deficits should be increased unless and until inflation is undesirably high. Now the proposal “deficits should be increased” does not imply an optimal policy. If no matter how high the debt is, it should be...