Mike Norman Economics

Apple has been fined 25 million euros (£21m, $27m) for deliberately slowing down older iPhone models without making it clear to consumers. Why didn't Apple inform people that their phones would slow down as their batteries aged? Old batteries can't supply peak current and this can cause a phone to crash, so slowing a phone down might be a good idea, but how many people upgraded their phones when all they needed was a new battery?The fine was imposed by France's competition and fraud...

‘We have now entered the world’s sixth mass extinction event — the biggest, most rapid global biodiversity crisis since a meteor ended the age of the dinosaurs’ This is sad! A massive decline of bumblebees — the world’s most important pollinators — is now underway due to “climate chaos” and other human impacts on the world, scientists have warned. A new study reveals bumblebees are currently disappearing at rates “consistent with a mass extinction”, and are on course to be...

Why is it always an uphill battle?I'm late for work one day:'But of all days why did I oversleep today when I have such important appointment', I scream at myself. Skipping breakfast, I run to the bus stop, and I'm lucky as a bus turns up right way. 'I'm going to make it', I think, so relieved, except the bus is early and the driver waits for two minutes at each bus top. Each of those minutes seem like eternity.No matter how hard we try to get our lives together, things seem to get more...

This is such an informative article that it was difficult to find an excerpt as every bit is pertinent. In Britain the chief generators of climate apartheid can be summed up in two words, “BP” and “Shell.” Hydrocarbon capital is especially concentrated in the UK.... Taken together with the ownership patterns of the big mining companies, these figures indicate a broad pattern of money from global extraction operations being sucked into London as the executive and financial centre; and then...

DAMASCUS, (BM) – Attempts by the Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intimidate the Russian and Syrian military resulted in colossal losses for terrorists in the province of Idlib, which was caused by large-scale strikes by the Russian Air Force, resumed 36 hours after the military ultimatum of the Turkish leader, learned BulgarianMiltary.com, quoting news agency AviaPro. Large-scale Russian air strikes over Idlib in response of the Turkish ultimatum?

Massive buildup of freshwater could be released into Atlantic, disrupting currents that keep western Europe warm    A major ocean current in the Arctic could reverse amid warming temperatures, a change which would bring significantly colder weather to western Europe, scientists at Nasa have warned. The circular current, called the Beaufort Gyre, moves in a clockwise direction around the western Arctic Ocean, north of Canada and Alaska, where it naturally collects freshwater...

But finally, this week, the U.K. came out with the news which bring about joy especially for  for environmentalists. The government announced that it will ban the sale of fossil-fuel vehicles - including hybrid - starting in 2035. They moved the ban five years earlier than they initially planned for.  It seems like countries are slowly and gradually understanding the climate change issue. The Street  These Countries Want to Eliminate Fossil Fuels for Good

Too much work in our Protestant Work Ethic culture, but only the wealthy can afford to have housewives. The current toxic always-on work culture must be understood as a key factor facilitating the rise of this retro-movement. As overload work culture has become common in many developed countries, governments have also been cutting vital resources that help support families and communities. Combined with entrenched gendered social norms, the burden of care disproportionately falls on...

Anti-EmpireRussia Says Airliner Was Forced to Land After Israelis Were Using It as a Shield in Syria Strikes (VIDEO) RIA Novosti Dances with Bears (Kudrin is a neoliberal) DAUPHIN OR DOOFUS, ALEXEI KUDRIN TRIES AGAIN John Helmer Geopolitika (divide and conquer)*Pompeo Attempts To Create New Allies In Eurasia Against Russia Paul Antonopoulos*Sputnik InternationalPot, Meet Kettle: Pentagon Chief Esper Accuses Russia, China of Trying to Reshape World Order Sic Semper Tyrannis (A commenter...

Kalecki creeps into the mainstream. First it was Minsky and now Kalecki. Can Marx be far behind? I have always had pleasant interactions with David Andolfatto and he has been open to argument about MMT. He is a careful thinker and wants to be convinced, which is, of course, a good trait. While I think Kalecki's political reasons for the chronic lack of full employment in capital and the recurrent economic downturns that are quite convincing, David Andolfatto is skeptical, since as...