Mike Norman Economics

Did it live up to expectations? Yes and no. The starting point of the book is the ‘global victory of capitalism’ – ‘the entire globe now operates according to the same economic principles – production organized for profit using legally free wage labour and mostly privately owned capital, with decentralized coordination.’No credible alternatives currently exist out there in the real world. So far, so Fukuyama. But then he goes on to explore two broad branches of contemporary capitalism and...

Economic warfare was widely used in WWII. When one country blockaded another’s supply of essential goods or bombed the industries producing them, why did the adversary’s economy fail to collapse? This column, part of the Vox debate on the economics of WWII, reviews Mançur Olson’s insights, which arose from the elementary economic concept of substitution. He concluded that there are no essential goods; there are only essential uses, which can generally be supplied in many ways. Also a reason...

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has quietly rolled out a new social network that is intended to get right what Facebook and Twitter have so far been getting wrong.The new social network, WT:Social, which Wales announced had 25,000 members on November 6, now has about 78,000 members who are at least intrigued by the idea of a social network that combats fake news.... Check it out here. WT:Social.TechaPeekWikipedia’s Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival social networkTap Team

'Private good, public bad'Proportion of properties connected to full fibre broadband:??98%??97%??10% South Korea has a state-owned broadband service.  Doesn’t this illustrate the failure of the neoliberal market model to deliver public goods? 

An excellent article, one of the best critiques of neoclassical economics I've read for a while.David Graeber says how finance crashed the economy, while at the same time Britain had one of the finest education systems in the world. So what did the government do, rather than reform finance along the lines of Britain’s university system, it financialised the education system instead? Before long, the Bank of England (the British equivalent of the Federal Reserve, whose economists are most...

In 1990, a single decision by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a devastating effect on the UK's broadband infrastructure for the next 20 years and for the foreseeable future. In a little known story about the UK's broadband history, Dr Peter Cochrane, former Chief Technology Officer at BT and all round tech guru, tells TechRadar how the UK lost the broadband race way back in the 90s. TechRader How Thatcher killed the UK's superfast broadband before it even existed, By Jay...

On the table: Free super fast broadband for everyone in Britain if Labour gets in.The office of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is considering policy proposals detailing the nationalisation of BT (BT-A.L) drawn up by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), multiple sources have to 26ld Yahoo Finance UK. Labour looks at nationalising BT following proposal from Corbyn 

Since dorzagliatin is supposed to “repair” patients’ damaged insulin regulating function, it can potentially be a “cure” for some patients, who will not need the drug after certain period of intake. Existing drugs only lower3 blood sugar when the need arises. SCMP Eric Ng - Why are investors offloading Hua Medicine stock which is close to launching a novel diabetes drug?

They’re not mystics. But materialism is not giving good answers so they are looking aroundMaybe the Buddhists were right after all, the world is an Illusion and there is an universal consciousness.Some prominent physicists and neuroscientists who cannot accept the idea of a separate immaterial reality (dualism) turn to the simplest alternative, that the whole universe participates in consciousness (panpsychism). Perry notes that this general approach is a staple of Hindu and Buddhist thought...

Moon of AlabamaTrump And Zelensky Want Peace With Russia. The Fascists Oppose That. Sic Semper Tyrannis "...Tucker Carlson Criticized for Saying 'Russia Poses No Threat to the United States At All'"Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.) Spiegel OnlineNord Stream 2: The Cold War Returns to Germany Frank Dohmen, Alexander Jung and Roland Nelles Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist“No No You Guys, THIS US-Backed Coup Is Perfectly Legitimate!”Caitlin Johnstone