Mike Norman Economics

Weekend reading. What ideology guides the star of rising Chinese power? General Secretary Xi Jinping’s answer to this question is unequivocal: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not any other ‘ism.’” Xi is adamant that his Party adheres to what he calls the “lofty ideals of communism.” But what exactly do those ideals mean in 21st century China? What does Marx have to do with Zhongnanhai? Of late, this question has much vexed the Communist Party of China. Over the last...

While the equation fits relatively well, clearly it’s not perfect. As of 2019Q2 (first two months), year-on-year PCE inflation is underpredicted by 40 bps. I estimated the equation on a restricted sample ending in 2014; this imparts only a marginal difference — so it’s not that something has changed substantially over the last 4 and a half years. Rather the specification could be improved. In other words, perhaps a different measure of NAIRU, or a nonlinearity might improve the fit....

A new quarterly report from logistics company DHL, measured global air and sea cargo trade volumes between March and June, found trade data continues to deteriorate in the US and China as there is still no resolution to end the trade war, reported South China Morning Post(SCMP). Chinese imports were "losing significant momentum," the report stated, indicating the epicenter of the slowdown was situated in basic raw materials, capital equipment and machinery, and consumer fashion goods. The...

Backgrounder. China is much different from the USSR, and the later should not be used as a measure. While the developed countries have largely flatlined, with GDP tracking population growth, China still has a lot of room to grow even though its population has stabilized.Conversable EconomistChina's Changing Relationship with the World EconomyTimothy Taylor | Managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, based at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota

Watch the debt ceiling developments.

Police officers had infiltrated some pretty harmless leftist, animal rights, unions, and environmental groups in the UK, and some of them had intimate relationships with women. To become a spy, an officer had to be married so that if he started a relationship with a campaigner he would have a real wife and family to help stop him forming a bond with the woman he was spying on.I remember years ago it was in the news how one police officer started to really like the animal rights activists...

Showdown. The US/UK appear to be driving China, Russia and Iran into a world war that none of them want. Who is going to blink? Or no one? OilPrice.comU.S. Threatens China With Sanctions On Iranian Oil Imports Irina SlavSee alsoReutersChina says it will sanction U.S. firms that sell arms to Taiwan

Paul Robinson shows how the attempt to create a "Putin is rehabilitating Stalin" meme is based on reaching and is clearly an exercise in propaganda.Robinson makes the point that celebrating Stalin as the victor in WWII and revering his leadership as Russia's savior from a dire future under the Reich does not imply condoning his other excesses.I would add that the US founding fathers are also celebrated and revered even though some of them, George Washington, for example, were slave-owners,...

M. K. Bhadrakumar seriously faults the Modi government for a strategic blunder of unprecedented proportion for India. India PunchlineUS pours oil into fire in Gulf, mum’s the word for IndiaM. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service

Bottom line: Russiagate is going up in smoke. The claim that Russian military intelligence fed thousands of emails to WikiLeaks doesn’t stand up to scrutiny while Mueller is not only unable to a prove a connection between the Internet Research Agency and the Kremlin but is barred from even discussing it, according to Friedrich’s ruling, without risking a charge of contempt. After 22 months of investigating the ins and outs of Russian interference, Mueller seems to have finally come up...