Mike Norman Economics

Study on demographics, ideology and demands of protestors. Inconclusive, but it appears that the HK plutocracy opposes (bad for finance, commerce, and asset value). Quite a bit has been written about this lately and from what I can gather the protestors are far from homogenous, representing different interest groups with different agendas and objectives. The so-called  black groups of violent radicals are as usual only a minority of the population of protestors and the protestors are a...

When US President Donald Trump boasted that trade wars are "easy to win" in March 2018, it was convenient to dismiss the remark as a rhetorical flourish. Yet it is now clear that Trump meant it, because he genuinely believes the bizarre and anachronistic macroeconomic theories underlying his approach.... When even Robert Barro is against you.Interestingly, Professor Barro reiterates that imports are an economic benefit in the sense of increasing a nation's real wealth, and that trade is...

Reinhart and Rogoff. Why didn't they take responsibility, a student asked Andrew Gelman. Statistics professor Gelman answers:  It wasn't actually about the data in the minds of R & R, so being wrong about it apparently made no significant difference to them. Empirical result? Meh.Rationalists, or just ideologues with a cognitive bias? Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social ScienceThe ladder of social science reasoning, 4 statements in increasing order of generality, or Why...

The HillThe 10 counties that will decide the 2020 electionReid Wilson

This is Part 2 of the series I started earlier this week in – An MMT-Green New Deal and the financial markets – Part 1 (September 2, 2019). In the first part, I discussed Chapter 12 in John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory, published in 1936, where he outlined how the growth of financial markets was distorting investment choices and biasing them towards speculative wealth-shuffling exercises, which had the potential to destabilise prosperity generated by the real economy (production,...

The FT has a similar article but it's behind a paywall so I found this. Markets are warming toward Jeremy Corbyn. Yes, you read that right. In a sign of just how unpredictable United Kingdom markets have become, analysts are starting to believe that the die-hard socialist leader of the Labour Party could be just what sterling needs in this, its darkest hour. Katie Martin - MARKETS WARM TO THE IDEA OF A LABOUR TAKEOVER IN THE UK

The Devil! New leaked documents expose for the first time a secret US Special Operations Command unit code named Task Force Smoking Gun. It has been deployed in Croatia since 2017 and tasked with diverting tons of arms and ammunition from Europe to Syria. Recently I anonymously received explosive documents about arms deals between the US Government and the Serbian state owned-arms manufacturer Krusik, including contracts, e-mails, internal memos, photos, delivery schedules, and packing...

TRNN takes an in-depth look at so-called public-private partnerships and how they funnel public money into the pockets of the ultra-wealthyNew Labour, New Democrat, they were all in on the racket! [embedded content]

Let people do what they want with “their” property… even if it causes climate catastrophe. I like it when people on the right are forthright about the implications of their beliefs, because it helps reassure me that I’m not crazy. So in a way, I’m grateful that Brendan O’Neill has published “Why shouldn’t Brazilians burn down trees?” in Spiked, because it is a good way to show how the logic of libertarianism works and why it’s so deadly. NATHAN J. Robinson - WHY LIBERTARIANISM WILL...

Another ridiculous Zerohedge post. What else?