Mike Norman Economics

...why would the government borrow from a private bank when, in the form of the Bank of England, it actually owns its own? If we persist in the idea that asking the Bank of England to create money puts us in debt, then given its only shareholder is the government we are actually in debt to ourselves – and that is no debt at all. And logic dictates that if you are not indebted you do not have anything to pay back. Progressive PulseThe debt deceptionPeter May

Odds of a V-shaped recovery in oil demand are shrinking. Demand for jet fuel will continue to drag on global oil demand for at least another two years. Permanent changes in lifestyle and possible reduced commuting in developed economies could structurally reduce demand for oil products. Demand for energy is a pretty good barometer of economic activity. Oilprice.comWhat’s Holding Back A Full Recovery In Oil DemandTsvetana Paraskova

Another warning about Wikipedia not being a reliably objective information platform.VenezuelanalysisProject Venezuela: Right-Wing Activists Push Wikipedia to Blacklist Alternative Media Alan Macleod

Shades of debt-deflationary depression? Vulture watch beginning? Apparently it's only notional so far. But if things don't turn around rather soon....Zero HedgeNearly Half Of Americans Consider Selling Home As COVID Crushes FinancesTyler Durden

My view is that changes in structure in the labour markets that started in the 1980s – but kicked into gear in the early 1990s – explain the structural breaks in the behaviour of the developed economies that took place in the early 1990s. The advantage of these changes has been the decline in inflation. Although neoclassical economists attribute this change to the switch to inflation targeting (as will be discussed in Section 2.5), I do not think we can assume away the changes to the labour...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was careful to focus his criticism on the Chinese Communist Party but unusually cited Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, by name... The new US geopolitical strategy is based on ramping up its prior geopolitical strategy based anti-Communism after mothballing it during the Chimerica détente, in effect resuming the Cold War.Western liberal had a lot of soft power back then, though, and that's been diminishing at a rapid rate for years.Hindustan Times (India)US calls...

Sounds logical from this description.From what I can gather, the aspects of the protests to which Beijing chiefly objects and which the new legislation addresses involved rioting, terrorism, insurrection, secession, and collusion with foreign governments that declare themselves adversaries of China and seek openly promote regime change in China by demonizing the ruling party.The US already dealt with this at the time of the civil war, and if such tactics were used in the US down, the...

An excellent article from Zero Hedge. Now we have Instagram type trading apps (Robinhood) to trigger instant highs and lows.Social media and gambling have the same addictive psychological mechanism: variable rewards — when you keep performing an action in hopes of getting a possible but unlikely reward. This is the type of behavior that’s the “most addictive and hardest to stop.” Zero Hedge  Tyler Durden - iAddiction: "I Was A F**king Mess Yesterday"

Denise Hearn is the co-author of 'The Myth of Capitalism.' The financial expert explains in this new video op-ed how capitalism and the American dream is largely a myth.  Additionally, inequality in America is on the rise as mega corporations take over the economy. 'Competition is dying in America,' Hearn argues, 'And capitalism without competition is not capitalism.' Hearn goes on to explain that it's happening across industries and it's resulting in the appearance of choice, but in reality...

Speech by Vladimir Putin to set the record straight and plan jointly for the future of a world in flux while under stress.The National InterestVladimir Putin: The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II Original at Rossiyskaya Gazeta