Mike Norman Economics

Review. Two-time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley is known for being in "period pieces" such as Pride and Prejudice, so her playing the lead in the new film Official Secrets, scheduled to be release in the U.S. this Friday, may seem odd at first. That is until one considers that the time span being depicted-- the early 2003 run-up to the invasion of Iraq-- is one of the most dramatic and consequential periods of modern human history. It is also one of the most poorly understood, in part...

Defend Democracy PressYellow Vests Gather for 42nd Week of Protests in Paris‘Stop the Coup, Defend Democracy’, Thousands Shout in the UKSecond ‘yellow vests’ protest in Geneva draws several hundred SI‘Stop the Coup Coup Kachoo!’: Glasgow Protesters Rally Against ProrogationProtests Over PM Johnson's Move to Suspend Parliament Take Place in Glasgow - Video Reuters Hong Kong commercial centers paralyzed as protesters, police exchange petrol bombs and tear gas TASSAbout 750 protesters...

Middle-class people in the U.S. are losing ground to their peers in other rich countries.  U.S capitalism is falling the middle and lower classes. Trickle down is not working. Our income estimates may actually underestimate the economic well-being of Canadians relative to Americans. Indeed, Canadians usually receive more in-kind benefits from their governments, including notably in health care (as noted also by Wolfson and Murphy, 1998). Had these benefits been included in the estimates,...

Must-read! Branko Milanovic sums up the fundamental issue affecting political economy as economics in relation to society. Neoclassical economic is like doing engineering with a total focus on efficiency and ignoring resilience. This approach views redundancy as inefficient. This is like eliminating the emergency brake on vehicles. An economy is the material life-support system for a society and its culture. It is the welfare and progress of the society that set the priorities....

Aaron Maté's round up of the Russia-gate nonsense, which has discredited mainstream journalism as well as distract it from analysing Trumps' terrible policies.Aaron Maté slams MSNBC's latest Russiagate dud, exposing how Lawrence O'Donnell's embarrassing retraction is part of a pattern of bogus conspiracy theories that push the limits of political self-satire. [embedded content]

The Vineyard of the SakerBRICS was created as a tool of attack: LulaPepe Escobar The Vineyard of the SakerNew World Order in Meltdown, But Russia Stronger Than EverJohn Hellevig | Awara Group Sputnik InternationalIndian GDP Growth Falls to Six-Year Low, Gov't Advisor Blames US-China Trade Tensions SouthfrontTrump Seeks To Use Chinese Imperial Debt Bonds to Pressure Beijing In Trade War: Bloomberg Sputnik InternationalBolton Excluded From Afghan Policy Decisions After Irritating Trump -...

Dollar hits 2-year high.

Like the twentieth-century Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the new rivalry between China and the West is a contest between fundamentally incompatible political systems. And the idea that freedom and democracy will prevail can no longer be taken for granted.… While this is an interesting read, I don't think he frames it quite right. Alexander Dugin has pointed out that there are three modern political theories, liberalism, communism, and fascism, and one ancient one,...

Historically, and especially in the United States in the early part of the 20th century, monopoly power was rightly viewed as a serious threat to the economy and to society, and steps were taken to break up monopolies. It was President Franklin Roosevelt who famously said that “government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.” However, in recent decades, neoliberal economics has led a much more benign view of monopoly power, and very little action is now...

This is not your typical gold buggy "argument" against MMT although it is pro-gold standard. Jeffrey Snider goes through the history and lays out a case. It is worth a read.  Edison was exactly right about the nature of gold as money. Everything boils down to who gets to control it. If you believe as Edison and Ford the government can be and most often is a force for good, then monetary restraint is a barbarous evil. But what if the government is populated, always, by bumbling...