Author Archives: Yves Smith
From MAHA to MAGA: Can We Get There?
Why MAHA won’t accomplish much even if it gets off the starting block unless the US also addresses inequality. Good luck with that.
Read more...How Shareholder Activism Became Toxic—and How to Fix It
How shareholder activism, which once helped check self-serving managements, has become the province of hedge fund extortionists.
Read more...Medical Research Depends on Government Money – Even a Day’s Delay in the Intricate Funding Process Throws Science Off-Kilter
NIH funding is a case study of how the Trump wreaking ball will damage medical research and undermine US leadership in medicine.
Read more...The Planet Had 58 Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters in 2024, The Second-Highest on Record
The world endured three of top-20 costliest disasters in 2024, its fifth-deadliest wildfire, and three heat waves with over 1,000 deaths
Read more...Links 1/28/2025
Federal Threats Against Local Officials Who Don’t Cooperate with Immigration Orders Could Be Unconstitutional − Justice Antonin Scalia Ruled Against Similar Plans
Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration push is on a collision course with states’ rights to control policing. Which might prevail/
Read more...Cut Flowers, Coffee, and a Geopolitical Shock
Colombia and coffee and flowers, or how successful bullying does not necessarily translate into durable wins.
Read more...What France Loses by Closing Its Military Bases in Africa
What happens when a former colonial power like France loses one of the key implements of its control?
Read more...New York Times Defends Mexican Cartels Because US Economy
The New York Times sinks to a new low in defending Mexican cartels because they are too intertwined in US economic activity.
Read more...Tariffs Are Coming: How Trade Dynamics Will Shape Aggregate Demand and Inflation
Consumers may not suffer from more inflation per official data if Trump imposes tariffs. But that does not mean they won’t be worse off.
Read more...Links 1/25/2025
Michael Hudson: Trump’s Balance-of-Payments War on Mexico, and the Whole World
Why US trade and economic threats against Mexico could trigger a financial/currency crisis that may propagate across the Global South
Read more...President Trump Promises to Make Government Efficient − and He’ll Run Into the Same Roadblocks as Presidents Taft, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush, Among Others
Why “make government efficient” and cost cutting programs are close to destined to come up short.
Read more...How Much Will Trump’s Bark Exceed His Bite? Doubts About Whether Disruptive Federal Hiring and Spending Pauses Will Produce Lasting Changes
Trump is adept at using his willingness to be wildly inconsistent to destabilize opponents. But he is unduly fond of using blunt instruments like tariffs that he can impose unilaterally, with insufficient consideration of whether they will work all that well, let alone what bad unintended effects they might generate. What Trump has done so […]
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