Mike Norman Economics

The World Socialist Web Site supports the Hong Kong protestors seeing in them the fight against global capitalism. But the leaders of the demonstration come from the libertarian right and their backers are rich pro-US neoliberals, so I don't think this demonstration will spread much in the way of socialism. Although the WSWS are right about exploitation in China.  The CCP, its name notwithstanding, has presided over decades of capitalist exploitation at the expense of the working class...

The recent decision by the People’s Bank of China to let the renminbi fall below CN¥7 per US dollar has little to do with trade or currency wars. Rather, it represents an important step by the PBOC toward reforming China’s inflexible exchange-rate regime.… Important because of who is saying it.Project SyndicateThe Renminbi’s Bid for FreedomYu Yongding, former president of the China Society of World Economics and director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese...

Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal discuss with the Chinese expert, Carl Zha, the riots in Hong Kong. Apparently, according to the pro-democracy demonstrators, 53% of Hong Kong people support them, but this report this support says this is fast fading due to the violence of the demonstrators.The right to peaceful demonstrations should be supported everywhere.There is video footage of an US official boasting about Washington’s and NED funding of pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong, even though...

A new government study released reveals that suicide has been on the rise nationwide since 1999. The figures were released in the week when the deaths of designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain brought the issue to the fore.54% of Americans that commit suicide has no known mental illness issues, although mental illness maybe underdiagnosed. More suicides occur in rural areas where there is more recession and isolation.BBCRitu Prasad - Why US suicide rate is on the rise

I have regularly noted how the UK Guardian, the so-called newspaper for progressives as opposed to The Times, which serves the Tories, has been a primary media instrument for propagating neo-liberal economic myths. It has also been part of Project Fear, which the Remainers thought would see the June 2016 Referendum resolved in their favour, and have ever since been moaning about the need for another vote – you know, democracy as long as it delivers what you want. But when the Tories...

RT‘All of us are in danger’: John Pilger delivers a chilling warning from Julian Assange Zero HedgeHK Security Chief Says Police Battling "Elements Of Terror" - For First Time Echoing Mainland Tyler Durden Moon of AlabamaHong Kong Rioters Wage Sabotage Campaign To Press Congress Into Punishing China Sic Semper Tyrannis"The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act" Dennis Kwok Dennis Kwok Zero HedgeChina's Xinhua Issues Ultimatum: "End Is Coming" For Hong Kong ProtestersTyler...

What emotion did you feel the first time you saw Picasso's Guernica? I was blown away. I was about 22 or 23 at the time, a grad student at Columbia on my first visit to the Museum of Modern Art. I revised that picture often.I had seen reproductions on a much smaller scale and knew the background but this didn't prepare for the real thing. The size makes the experience exceptionally powerful.And this was before Vietnam radicalized me.War is truly hell.Open CultureWhat Makes Guernica So...

This week, Vladivostok, Russia is hosting the 5th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), an event which is the largest of its kind in terms of attendance, which will attract Russia’s top politicians and their Asian counterparts. This year, the forum will be attended by the heads of state and government of India, Malaysia, Mongolia and Japan, who will participate in a panel discussion alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. The forum is unique in that it is a product of the new Russia, rather...

Hong Kong’s increasingly xenophobic protests are devolving into chaos with help from US government regime-change outfits and a right-wing local media tycoon with close ties to hardliners in Washington. Plenty of video footage here of the protestors beating up paramedics (who are trying to help people), the police, civilians, or anyone who gets in their way. No other country would put up with this level of violence on its streets. The Western media isn't showing this, or telling the...

New fourth round of tariffs on Chinese goods will hit US consumers and firms especially hard, just as the US enters an election season. Who blinks first?Asia TimesMoment of truth approaching for Trump’s trade warNile Bowie