Mike Norman Economics

Backgrounder.The Vineyard of the SakerRussia, China, and the European Peninsula Godfree Roberts

The geopolitical tensions surrounding the development of Nord Stream 2 are unprecedented. To begin with, Russia has very poor relations with the Baltic states and Poland, nations who will almost always fight against anything they see as empowering Russia geopolitically. Then there is Ukraine, a nation that is strongly against the pipeline due to its fear of losing the transit fees that it currently charges Russia for exporting gas to Europe. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the United...

Then there’s the nagging issue that simply won’t go away: the American drive to “secure the oil” (Trump) and “protect” Syrian oilfields (the Pentagon), for all practical purposes from Syria. In Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – alongside Iran’s Javad Zarif and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu – could not have been more scathing. Lavrov said Washington’s plan is “arrogant,” and violates international law. The very American presence on Syrian soil is “illegal,” he said. All across...

There have been protests (mostly pointing up economic stress) across the region for some months: from Egypt to Iraq. But the Lebanese demonstrations have caught the global attention. And there is no doubting that the Lebanese protests represent a major phenomenon. We may ask whether they are essentially a local manifestation, reflecting only the well-attested Lebanese problems of corruption, widening disparities in wealth, nepotism and failing state structures, or do they signal something...

This comes amid US President Trump's announcement that the signing site of the 'phase one' trade deal with China would be announced 'soon'.A World Trade Organization’s arbitrator ruled Friday that China could impose $3.6 billion worth of tariffs on US goods over its unfair anti-dumping practices. "We determine that the level of nullification or impairment of benefits accruing to China as a result of the WTO-inconsistent methodologies used by the United States in anti-dumping proceedings...

At the simplest level, "it's the incentives, stupid." And incentives reflect underlying values and value structure that shape interests and the their pursuit. Foundationally, it about the level of collective consciousness. Want to change social behavior for the "better"? Raise the level of collective consciousness. But what are the criteria of "better"? How can they be determined – instrumentally by outcomes, deontologically on the basis of universally applicable rules), virtue based...

At least China is upfront about this. And is taking all the media flak. The whole kerfuffle over Huawei is about who is going to control the information, foreign intelligence services or Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, Oz and NZ).ACLUThe FBI is Tracking Our Faces in Secret. We’re Suing. Kade Crockford , Director

The bottom line is that MMT’s aims are exemplary but an aggressive fiscal stance carries some risk. The doctrine’s theoretical synthesis adds little to the vintage ideas of Godley, Lerner, and Keynes. MMT revamps them with an expansionary thrust but is no striking intellectual synthesis. A better acronym would be VFT, or Vintage Fiscal Theory. Another "we knew it all along and it's no big deal" critique that cites no MMT economists. Lance Taylor does cite his own work, however, and that of...

An excellent article about what went wrong with American capitalism. She says how by investing less American companies were able to keep their prices up because it lessoned supply.As China zooms ahead, the US answer is more gunboats.  Private investment fell sharply in the US over the course of the 1980s — from 20 per cent of GDP in 1984 to 15 per cent in 1991. And as corporations have cut costs in an attempt to boost profits, wages have fallen too. The average worker in the US is no better...

Didn't work before and didn't work this time. Hype.Economic Policy InstituteThe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act isn’t working and there’s no reason to think that will change Hunter Blair