Mike Norman Economics

Neil explains how banking works.New WaylandThe Coin's Deposit Problem NeilW

Remember when the US outspent the USSR and this was puportedly the cause of the collapse of the USSR? As they, what goes around comes around, i.e., karma is a bitch.Lockheed Martin's hypersonic AGM-183A ARRW ("Arrow") underwent an initial flight test in June 2019. On 27 May 2021, the defence contractor "successfully conducted a significant live fire hypersonic strike system test" of a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB). Several months later, on 4 October 2021, Lockheed Martin opened a...

Crypto miners lured by cheap energy and a democratic court system with the power to protect property rightsWinning what, exactly? Anyone know the contribution to GDP from the bitcoin "industry"?Asia TimesUS wins big as China wipes out bitcoin industry

 People who receive two COVID-19 jabs and later contract the Delta variant are less likely to infect their close contacts than are unvaccinated people with Delta.Vaccine mandates are unlikely to slow the spread of Delta by all that much, but researchers are looking into whether a third booster shot may be more effective at doing so.The study shows that people who become infected with the Delta variant are less likely to pass the virus to their close contacts if they have already had a...

 What happens when not enough people get vaccinated. The Russians are very scared of vaccines, and will even buy fake vaccination certificates. CBS News reporter Mary Ilyushina takes a look at spiking coronavirus infection rates in Russia. Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and the death toll is rising. And with low vaccination rates and an increasingly apathetic public, it's unclear when the country's latest COVID-19 wave will end.[embedded content]https://youtu.be/X4aF0RSWokUDW:...

The IndependentThe west wants to engage Russia and China on the climate crisis, while also demonising them – it won’t workPatrick CockburnSputnik InternationalNew US Treasury Guidelines Warn Crypto Industry of Perils of Sanctions ViolationsStrategic Culture FoundationColour Revolutions Fade AwayPatrick Armstrong, retired analyst and diplomat (2008) serving in the Canadian Department of National Defence specializing in the USSR/Russia from 1984 and a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in...

Nathan Tankus has an op ed up.Notes on the CrisisNew Guardian Op Ed: The case for minting a $1tn coin to deal with America’s debt ceilingNathan Tankus

Resilience cannot be restored without public spending, but the rentier business plan is to minimize taxes by shrinking the government, especially by privatizing its public utilities and other functions to create opportunities for charging monopoly rents, and to oppose taxation of economic rent. Today’s mainstream economic philosophy and academic curriculum throughout the West backs this neoliberal program by denying that there is any such thing as unearned rentier income or wealth.Yet only a...

Backgrounder. Why BRI  and the New Silk Road are going to happen and stretch to Europe. This is the US's worst nightmare and it will do everything possible to prevent it.Asia TimesWhen the West was itchin’ to go to ChinaPepe Escobar

Based on my own interactions with lawmakers on the Hill, I would estimate that roughly one-third of Congress is now MMT conversant. By that I mean that they could articulate—in very general terms—that the federal government is the issuer of the currency, that its budget is not constrained like that of a household or private business, and that inflation (not solvency) is the relevant constraint on spending.Congressman Yarmuth is more than generically conversant with MMT. He put in the time...