Mike Norman Economics

Two authoritative Australian experts, backed up by a retired admiral of the Royal Australian Navy, recently issued a dire report that warns of an impending collapse of civilization from human-caused climate change. The report, titled “Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach,” is not the product of alarmists, but of two authors with expertise in their professional areas. Only one of the authors is an environmental expert. He is David Spratt, a Research Director at the...

Losing Germany?When will it take for the Europeans figure out that the US is using Russia as a ploy to maintain Europe's occupied status since WWII? The US president said the United States was "protecting" Germany from becoming over-reliant on Russia by opposing the project. Selling "protection" like  the Mafia?Sputnik InternationalTrump Says He's Considering Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2

"You are either with us or against us," works in more ways than one. the UK is discovering. "Want access to the Chinese market much?"International relations isn't beanbag.Sputnik InternationalChina’s Ambassador Warns UK of Threat to Trade, Investment Ties Over Attempts to Block Huawei

The headline is a bit sensational (clickbait) but the head of the Central Bank of Russia is positive about considering it, although she doesn't see it as the priority. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is studying a proposal to create a gold-backed cryptocurrency, which could be used for cross-border settlements with other countries.The bold proposal was made by Russia’s State Duma member Vladimir Gutenev. He has suggested initiating discussion to set up national cryptocurrency, denominated...

China hopes to win Indian and Russian support in establishing a “new type” of “rules-based” and “multilateral” trade initiative.Multiple Indian media reports suggest the country’s recently re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join forces with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan this week to express their concerns about US President Donald Trump’s protectionist...

Understanding the Hong Kong kerfuffle.Trying to split Hong Kong away from China?Mint Press NewsAmerican Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests Alexander RubensteinSee alsoOriental ReviewHong Kong’s Caught In A Color Revolution Crisis Andrew Korybko

Being an atheist or agnostic doesn't necessarily imply that one is a naturalist.Open CultureAtheists & Agnostics Also Frequently Believe in the Supernatural, a New Study Shows Josh Jones

Backgrounder on cyberwarfare, a step up from economic warfare and internal subversion in the arsenal of hybrid warfare. In this endeavor, the US has merged the State Department, the Pentagon, the intel services, and the private technological companies, along with allies, chiefly "five eyes" – the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ together with the US as leader. The basic idea is to avoid kinetic warfare insofar as possible owing to the high likelihood that kinetic warfare will quickly go...

Picked up two more mythology employment incidents here yesterday:Here from the Carillo article down-thread: The Dangerous Myth of 'Taxpayer Money'  For over 40 years, Republicans have controlled the conventional wisdom around budgets, successfully using the “taxpayer money” myth... Here from Brian R's article down-thread: ...essentially the same thing as Quantitative Easing (QE), which has had no measurable effect on any macro variables in places like Japan. (There is certainly a feverish...

More "pumping!" at the PBoC; last "pump!" was June 6th. The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, on Thursday pumped 100 billion yuan (about 14.51 billion US dollars) into the financial system through open market operations.  To maintain stable liquidity in the middle of the year, the central bank conducted the operations with 28-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.85 per cent.  Net liquidity injection was 90 billion yuan on Thursday, as previous reverse repos...