Mike Norman Economics

In order to protect people from this type of imported inflation, African governments borrow foreign currencies in order to artificially keep African currencies “strong” relative to the US dollar and the euro. This artificial “band-aid” solution forces African economies into a frantic mode of economic activity focused exclusively on earning dollars or euros to service this external debt. As a result, Africa’s economies have been trapped into an austerity model, often enforced via conditions...

Simon Wren-Lewis tries and fails. Brian explains why.Bond EconomicsThe Implausibility Of The Lower Bound Escape ClauseBrian Romanchuk

Next installment.ProfSteveKeenThe Mathematical Model of Modern Monetary Theory 3 Steve Keen

Interesting article (longish) on online voting. Not ready for prime time?As it stands, the only provable means of secure voting is paper ballots cast in person with open counting and election observers to prevent cheating. And even that is not perfect. The digital age is apparently not quite upon us yet.Ars TechnicaWhy experts are overwhelmingly skeptical of online voting Timothy B. Lee

Good short argument for MMT based on The Deficit Myth. The author is an accountant.The Edge Markets (Malaysia)MySay: The economic crisis demands an urgent debate on modern monetary theoryMohd Anwar Yahya

Q: What is Novichok? A: Novichok is a very mild poison which Russia uses whenever it wants to tell the world to smash it with economic sanctions without actually endangering the life of its target.

A really good interview of Fred Weir. How can people be so stupid as to believe that Russian intelligence would use Novichok to bump someone off? All security services know how to get rid of people without drawing attention to themselves. And I like what Fred says about RT: yes, it does has an agenda, but is it really that controversial?Claims that Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny has been poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok are threatening a new standoff between Russia and NATO...

Zero HedgeThe Decline Of American's Upward Mobility In One ChartTyler Durden

Monetary history. Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of NeoliberalismDebt, Land and Money, From Polanyi to the New Economic ArchaeologyMichael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking University See alsoDavid and Michael were friends and collaborators. More than a...

This guy is pretty angry, but the Democrats are war crazy too. In fact, the Industrial-Military Complex seem prefer the Democrats.  I am stunned that anybody in the United States military would consider you anything but a loser or a sucker. You’re no patriot.’ — Ret. U.S. Army Major General Paul Eaton has a scathing message for Trump. [embedded content]