Xi portrays China as global leader as Trump era looms ... China will build a “new model” of relations with the United States, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday in a speech that portrayed China as the leader of a globalized world where only international cooperation could solve the big problems. -ReutersWith Trump focusing on domestic problems, China is stepping up to become an int...Read More

Donald Trump is committed to globalisation. Davos told Elite in Europe and US have misunderstood trade stance says Anthony Scaramucci … A senior member of Donald Trump's team insisted that the president-elect was committed to globalisation, open trade and Nato, despite recent comments that unsettled America's allies. -FTDonald Trump either misunderstand what globalism is, or he’s not...Read More

British Politician Warns Trump 'CIA Is Plotting Assassination' - British politician George Galloway has warned Donald Trump the American deep state is engaged in a "soft coup d'etat" and the CIA is planning to assassinate him. "There is a clear and present danger on his life.” -Your News WireGeorge Galloway is a somewhat popular but wildly leftist, English politician who says thing that othe...Read More

Sometimes the People Need to Call the Experts … The government about to take over in Washington has more billionaires than the Boston of Buckley's time, but it seems willing to test the theory that academics can be dispensed with for the most part. – BloombergThis article says that people ought to run the country except when “experts” do a better job, and that’s a lot...Read More

Happer is not wrong that carbon dioxide appears to bolster plant growth - the greening up of the Arctic has, indeed, been observed. But that comes with many other consequences, including melting of glaciers and thawing of permafrost, which can emit still more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. -Washington PostPhysicist William Happer believes there is global warming but unlike most, he believes it...Read More

Trump Needs Vaccine Experts, Not Conspiracy Theorists ... Trump could have turned to any number of reputable experts to learn about vaccine safety. Instead, he went straight for the fringe. -Daily BeastDonald Trump supposedly picked Robert Kennedy Jr. to head a commission on vaccines and autism, causing a good deal of anxiety among mainstream media.Trump has since denied that any decision has been...Read More

Tribal Warfare in Economics Is a Thing of the Past ... I still remember going to a graduate student barbecue my first month at the University of Michigan. I told a woman from another department that I was studying economics, and she asked me: "What school?" Blinking, I replied "This one. The University of Michigan." That wasn't what she was asking, of course. She wanted to know which tribe of ec...Read More

How Economists Can Stay Relevant Under Trump ... Economists are going to have to approach things a bit differently if they want to stay relevant in the Trump age. Political economy research is going to become more important. Some humility wouldn’t hurt. And they should look someplace other than the federal government to test their ideas. This is what I took away from this past weekend̵...Read More

Bloomberg Volkswagen Executives in Germany to Face U.S. Charges in Diesel ... Some of Volkswagen AG's top executives may find it risky to leave Germany as U.S. prosecutors prepare to charge more company officials. Oliver Schmidt, a VW executive, was arrested in Miami as he was returning to Germany from vacation and faces charges of misleading regulators about the automaker's diesel-emissions che...Read More

NATO seeks to break up Russia into small client states ... Scores of people have staged a protest in a northern German port city against the deployment and transport of NATO troops and weapons through the city. The protesters marched through the city of Bremerhaven, holding signs and banners that read, "No NATO deployment! End the militaristic march against Russia!" and "Out of NATO." -Press TVAcc...Read More

Intel report warns Moscow will try to influence elections in countries allied to US. The declassified version of the report warned that other countries were also vulnerable to attack. – IndependentIntelligence in the US is becoming even more emphatic about the Russian threat to elections, claiming that Russians will start to disrupt the elections of other countries like they are disrupting...Read More

Chief economist of Bank of England admits errors in Brexit forecasting … Andrew Haldane says his profession must adapt to regain the trust of the public, claiming narrow models ignored 'irrational behaviour.' The Bank of England's chief economist has admitted his profession is in crisis having failed to foresee the 2008 financial crash and having misjudged the impact of the Brexit vote. -G...Read More

Obama awarded Pentagon’s medal for distinguished public service Sarah Palin criticized the decision, saying “this is what happens when you grow up thinking every kid gets a trophy.” -Washington PostPresident Barrack Obama recently received a medal from the Department of Defence. The medal for Distinguished Public Service was awarded by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.The award wa...Read More

No Russian attempt to hack Vermont power grid found … Burlington Electric Department now says code associated with Russian hackers wasn’t on its employee’s laptop. Someone browses the internet on his work laptop. The laptop connects to a potentially malicious IP address. Nothing happens. -CNetOn Friday evening, there was a report that a Russian hacker had penetrated the US elect...Read More

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un says preparations for long-range missile at final stage ... A state-run Chinese newspaper accused Donald Trump of “pandering to ‘irresponsible’ attitudes” Tuesday after the president-elect alleged that Beijing had failed to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program. -NBCNTrump may be going at the issue of North Korea and nuclear weapons t...Read More

China says won’t allow Hong Kong to be used as subversion base ... China will not allow anyone stability, Beijing’s top official in the territory told state television. (Reuters)China is increasingly concerned with Hong Kong rhetoric about freedom, and has warned leaders against protests. Hong Kong operates under the uneasy policy of "one country, two systems.In an interview, Zhang...Read More

Costa Rica powered by renewable energy for over 250 days in 2016 ... Costa Rica completes 2016 without having to burn a single fossil fuel for more than 250 days. 98.2% of Costa Rica’s electricity came from renewable sources in 2016. The state-run Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) reported that renewable energy sources accounted for 98.2 per cent of the country’s electricity and...Read More

Rising nationalism leaves international criminal court at risk Top lawyer warns withdrawal of countries and limiting of funding threaten future of tribunal ... Six months after the international criminal court's new Dutch palace of justice was formally opened on windswept sand dunes beside the North Sea, a tide of nationalist sentiment is threatening to undermine the project. Three African states...Read More

This is a bad season for banking around the world and especially in Italy where major banks are under water.Central banks are supposed to protect banks but who really believes that? In the modern era especially central bank protection has often involved government refinancing.From the point of view of central banking, the health of the whole system is more important than the health of an individu...Read More

While both global monetary and fiscal policies struggle to keep aggregate demand if not rising, then at least constant, demographics continues to wreak havoc on the best laid plans of central planners around the rapidly aging world. Just last week we reported that in 2016, the US population grew at the slowest pace since the Great Depression, largely driven by the collapse in household formation a...Read More