Mike Norman Economics

Today (August 18, 2021), the ABS released the latest – Wage Price Index, Australia – for the June-quarter 2021. The WPI data shows that nominal wages growth remains suppressed, and, as a result of the transitory spikes in inflation recently, workers in all sectors experienced sharp drops in their real wages (purchasing power). The behaviour of nominal wages in Australia gives us a clear signal that there is little prospect of sustained inflationary pressures emerging from the labour market...

 Jeffrey Sachs has similar politics to me, it seems. I saw him being ruthlessly questioned about his role in reforming the Soviet Union, where he said he tried his hardest to get it right, but people, both Russians and Americans, were working behind his back to wreck his plans. There was massive corruption, he said. Almost every modern US military intervention in the developing world has come to rot. It’s hard to think of an exception since the Korean War. In the 1960s and first half of the...

Except I will never be able to afford one.  Making sure we aren't susceptible to any legal action, Clarkson takes a team of lawyers to test out the Tesla Model X.[embedded content]Clarkson Is Astonished By The Self-Driving Tesla Model X | The Grand Tour

Afghanistan is injecting volatility and now add to this, fears of an economic slowdown. However, the big worry is the debt ceiling. Trade and invest using the concepts of MMT. Get a 30-day free trial to MMT Trader. https://www.pitbulleconomics.com/ Download my podcasts! New one every week. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1105286 Mike Norman Twitter https://twitter.com/mikenorman Mike Norman Economics: https://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/

Trillions wasted. Lives lost. What does it mean for the U.S. economy.

 Richard Werner is quite sane here, no chemtrails, anti-vax, or covid conspiracy theories. He believes the regulations should be changed to encourage more small banks to flourish, which would be more willing to fund small and medium sized businesses. Germany has been the most successful at this, he says, and many of these companies are very innovative in the new green technologies. It sounds good!  the Russian Proverb goes: there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. As...

At this stage I need to make "No Shit" headline permanent. No, Russia is not "enjoying" America's humiliation, because real geopolitics and national interests do not work like this. By the "do not work like this" I mean a two-bit sublimation by Western "academe" of own complexes into pseudo-scientific dick-measuring contests in matters in which they have no even minimal competencies--a defining feature of modern West's (pseudo) "intellectual" class. Real great powers care about order and...

Those poor people trying to flee the Taliban! German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday admitted NATO allies had underestimated the speed of the Taliban's advance across Afghanistan and failed to anticipate that Afghan forces were not ready to take up the fight."There is no talking this up. All of us -- the federal government, intelligence services, the international community -- misjudged the situation," Maas told a press conference in Berlin.Barons OnlineInternational Community...

Backgrounder.The Vineyard of the SakerThe Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bangPepe EscobarSee alsoTKNews by Matt TaibbiAfghanistan: We Never Learn

More Vietnam redux. The US learned nothing from Vietnam and repeated the same mistakes. The US also did not learn from the French defeat in Vietnam that the US had aimed to reverse. French author Bernard Fall explained this at the time. I read his work while in the military during the Vietnam era. Did anyone else, especially the general staff running the war. I doubt it. The same mistakes were made in Afghanistan and Iraq. Somewhat ironically, similar mistakes are being made by the elite in...