Mike Norman Economics

Calm down, I don’t think the GOP committed any election fraud. Instead, I’m going to show that if you were going to look at the data and draw inferences about possible fraud, there’d be all sorts of red flags pointing right at the GOP.…I frequently see election fraud claims based on what the Trumpistas view as “fishy election data”. I cannot emphasize enough that all of these claims are false. Whether it be false claims that lots of people only voted for Biden and not for someone else, or...

 Replacing Hong Kong as "the pearl of the Orient." It was happening anyway regardless of "the troubles." Hong Kong's period of usefulness is winding down as China rises.TASS (Russian state-sponsored media)Sales at Hainan's duty free stores doubled since July 1 reaching $ 1.8 billionSee alsoCGTN (Chinese state-sponsored media)CGTN: Shanghai's Pudong to be pioneer in China's new reform drive

The WeChat owner and gaming boosted net profits 89 percent year-on-year to 38.54bn yuan ($5.8bn) in Q3, the company's financial report revealed....Tencent president Martin Lau Chi-Ping said in the company's earnings call that regulators were seeking fair competition practices and innovation to facilitate "a balance of interest for all stakeholders".“As technology companies become bigger and more important to the economy … more regulations to reflect the new reality are needed. We believe the...

When asked whether there had been concrete verified incidents of US meddling in Russia’s affairs, Peskov said there had been a lot of them. "You remember that back before 2008 <…> the Prosecutor General’s Office had compiled charts of money transfers to various non-governmental organizations from the US. I recall that this was reported to the president, and we actually made most of this data public. These examples are numerous," he said, stressing that this was regarded as interfering...

The facts: China’s top legislative body on October 17 passed the country’s first unified export control law. The adoption by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee enables the government to control the export of items including dual-use goods as well as military and nuclear products to specific foreign entities. Other goods, technologies and services – and related data such as technical information – will also be subject to controls, unless they were granted by export licenses...

Over the past few decades, the US justice system has gone from effectively punishing white-collar crimes to slapping corporations on the wrist while senior managers avoid accountability. Fortunately, there are relatively simple ways to give resource-strapped prosecutors the tools they need to uphold the law.Crime is essentially rent-seeking. It leads to economic inefficiency (waste) and skews market-based distribution, in addition to being unethical, immoral and illegal, hence, socially...

Using the tools it has today, China can transform its aging population into a vital social and economic force supporting the country’s growth, writes Jonathan Woetzel in China Daily.Also applies to the US unfortunately. Medicare takes care of seniors, but that's often too late for healthy aging since a lot of damage has already been done. M4A would easily pay for itself" in terms of increased efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. (Nominal cost is not an issue for a sovereign currency...

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales spoke about his government’s project to industrialize the nation’s lithium reserves during a press conference in Uyuni. Morales underlined that this initiative was suspended during the 11 months of the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez; nevertheless, he has indicated that newly elected president, Luis Arce, will now take it up again.After considering that throughout history, humanity has always struggled to control natural resources, the indigenous...

Biologists balk at any talk of ‘goals’ or ‘intentions’ – but a bold new research agenda has put agency back on the table.Weekend reading. A new approach to agency, information and entropy puts some of the enduring questions back on the table scientifically. Fairly short, easy read. AeonLife with purposePhilip Ball