Mike Norman Economics

Donald Trump has got away with his many trade wars over the last eighteen monthts because the US economy has been on steroids, a form of macroeconomic cheating that briefly steals growth from the future but catches up with you. The rest of the world has been struggling with an auto-led manufacturing slump. This came close to recession conditions earlier this year and touched bottom in August. The Telegraph  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Donald Trump is losing his trade war with China,...

Ukrainian fascists who previously fought in a US-backed neo-Nazi militia joined the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, sharing their tactics and showing off their tattoos. Neo-Nazis from Ukraine have flown to Hong Kong to participate in the anti-Chinese insurgency, which has been widely praised by Western corporate media and portrayed as a peaceful pro-democracy movement. The Greyzone  Ben Norton - Ukrainian neo-Nazis flock to the Hong Kong protest movement

“We said that this gathering [the summit] should be seen as a threat to global humanity. It’s quite clear from its history - that is NATO’s history - that it is a structure that is used to maintain and advance Western global capitalist interest, and for that it should be seen as a threat. Most of the interventions by NATO have been beyond the pale of legality,” [Ajamu] Baraka, [national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace,] told hosts Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon. “The very fact...

Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from. The commercial presents the Partnership as a grassroots organization of concerned citizens, rather than that corporate front group exposed by The Intercept that...

Defend Democracy PressArmy and Secret Services are threatening Corbyn with coup d’ etatBritish Secret Services attack Jeremy Corbyn British Generals: They like crimes like the Iraq War and Libya bombing, they hate Corbyn! A real threat: A very British coup The Independent British Army 'could stage mutiny under Corbyn', says senior serving generalCaroline Mortimer

The diplomat then proceeded to tell me who was and who was NOT Latin American, and pointing to the photo of a needy child which graced every table, he said: “For instance, that child there is not Latin American”. Astonished I asked how can you say that? She is Peruvian! “No, she is Indian. Latin Americans are those of us who stem from Spain and Portugal.” He was not kidding nor making some sort of epistemological statement on the origin of Latin languages. He was unashamedly, sneeringly ,...

Neoliberalism is the defining economic idea of our current moment, and we're all suffering for it. What is it, and how can we beat it? [embedded content]

Although there are various attempts to downplay rate expectations as an explanation for bond yields. the reality is that they dominate any other attempt to generate a fair value estimate by using "fundamental data". (Since we cannot hope to explain every last wiggle of bond yields without having a largely content-free model, we need to look at fair value estimates.) The reasoning is rather straightforward: so long as the risk free curve slope is related to the state of the economy, bond...

Longish but detailed exposé of the corporate media as the "custodians" of the narrative, with "the paper of record" in the lead. Foreign Policy JournalWho Will Tell the Truth About the So-Called ‘Free Press’?­Jeremy R. Hammond

Central Asia, between China and Europe, is bustling Take the tour with Pepe.Asia TimesAt China-Kazakh border: New Silk Roads in action Pepe Escobar