Author Archives: Yves Smith
Rob Urie: Why Did the US Attack Iran?
Rob Urie points out that how many forces the US keeps in theater will reveal its intent with Iran: deescalating versus trying to regroup.
Read more...Gen. Michael Kurilla and the Pivot to Asia
Is diminishing Iran key to the famed pivot to Asia, or a distraction?
Read more...Downgrading Uncle Sam, Not America
An orthodox economist describes inconsistencies in rating agencies’ approach to downgrading US debt and their view of reserve currency status
Read more...Israel Orders Attack on Iran After Iran Allegedly Violated Ceasefire It Never Agreed To
Israel is, or is about to be, back into the war-making game. And the US is sure to be in on the action.
Read more...On the Accelerating Decline in US Medical Training, and With It, Doctor Competence
A warning to US readers on the further degradation in medical training and resulting crapification of care.
Read more...Trump Backfire: How the 2018/19 US Tariffs Against China Boosted Exports and Employment in Mexico
How a Trump 1.0 tarrifs backfire illustrates fundamental flaw in how Trump goes about doing things.
Read more...Breaking: Fordow Attacked Again; Trump Talks Up Regime Change, Brays About Iran Nuclear Site Success as Israel Taking Increasing Toll from Attacks, Iran Puts Pieces in Place for Strait of Hormuz Closure; UPDATE: Iran Media Claims Attack on US Base in Syria
Iran updates, with the big underlying pressure being Israel’s decay path and US failure so far to arrest that.
Read more...US Attacks Iran: Start of a Long War? Update: Iran Parliament Votes to Close Strait of Hormuz
And so the US war against Iran begins, with showy strikes against empty nuclear facilities. What next?
Read more...Links 6/21/2025
Michael Hudson: Why America Is at War with Iran
The neocon logic for needing to defeat Iran and break it into ethnic parts
Read more...NATO’s Procurement Corruption Scandal Might Delay Its Rapid Militarization Plans
Yves here. Yet another example of European values in action! A corruption scandal in Aisle 5! While this procurement abuse is not all that big an impediment to European NATO members bulking up their armed forces, say compared to voters not being on board with baked-in social spending cuts, the lack of an industrial base, […]
Read more...ICE’s Rap Sheet Grows With Continuing Defiance of Congressional Oversight at Facilities, Attempt to Write Its Own Rules
ICE is becoming even more high-handed in its defiance of legally mandated Congressional oversight rights.
Read more...What if MAGA Has a Point About Science?
On the fallen legitimacy of science in the US, and what might be done about that.
Read more...The US Is Taxing the World’s Poorest — and Is Disguising It as Regulation
Yet more mean-spirited US conduct, here via taxing remittances, hurting families of (often legal) migrants and their home countries.
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