Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

Russia and China did not veto a Gaza-colonizing UN resolution, which says much about where multipolarity is turning out to be.

AI overlords seek to be better able to loot than banks: too big to fail yet unregulated. Call your Congresscritters to stop that.

An overview of Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth explains the core findings of MMT. and how debt hysteria serves the rich, not the public.

The practitioners of Hasbara are desperately ratcheting up their control of American corporate and social media and with Oracle’s Larry Ellison suddenly tapped out, are reportedly seeking funding from the Arab Gulf states to help.

Landlords of affordable apartments say the numbers increasingly don’t add up — and a rent freeze will work against tenants.

As the old baseball saying goes, sometimes “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.”  This became especially true since Curt Flood opened the floodgates to free agency more than fifty years ago when he refused to be treated as disposable property by the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, one August A. Busch, Jr.  […]

Citizens in EU states have been rebelling against social program cuts, like pension reforms. Are changes in the retirement age necessary?

As Helmer said by e-mail, “The Trump formula is retreat=negotiations plus covert operations.”

In 1982, the Falklands War rescued Margaret Thatcher from political collapse and turned her into a wartime icon. But the deeper lesson of that conflict is more dangerous: diversionary war is appealing to failing leaders, whether democratic or authoritarian. Donald Trump’s long-standing fascination with invading Venezuela, documented in his first term and now echoed by renewed U.S. deployments, a favored opposition proxy, and drug-war legal framing, fits the same dual pattern that produced the Falklands: a desperate leader seeking escape through external confrontation, and the hope of political resurrection through a short, decisive victory. The Falklands Effect turned crisis into triumph for Thatcher, but a Venezuelan conflict today could result in disaster for Trump. The danger is serious, but the power of Trump’s temptation is quietly growing.

More evidence that publicly funded research is disproportionately productive and hence critical to innovation.

Rob Urie looks at a trifecta of failure: a looming Ukraine loss in Ukraine, desperation among workers, and the unfixable problems with generative AI

For the moment there is no smoking gun. But the US is clearly, wilfully destabilising the country. And this effort predates Trump 2.0.