Flooded Cities
Major cities are often located in low-lying areas that are flood-prone. Worse, after being flooded out, people and businesses tend to return even when relocating is the better choice.
Read more...Author Archives: Yves Smith
Why Bitcoin is Not Disruptive
Get a cup of coffee. This is a deep dive into how Bitcoin works from a payment systems perspective, and why the failure of promoters and journalists to look at it in those terms has led them to greatly overestimate its significance.
Read more...Robert Reich: Why the White Working Class Abandoned the Democratic Party
The history of the political calculus that led the Democratic Party to turn its back on its traditional base, the working class, and how that’s coming back to bite now.
Read more...Funds Hold Most Cash Since GFC
Fund manager cash holdings are at crisis-bottom levels, typically a sound bullish indicator. But will history predict the future this time?
Read more...US Oil Futures Plunge by Nearly 7%, to $26.55 a Barrel; Stocks Swoon
Oil has ratcheted down again and stocks are getting hammered.
Read more...Ann Pettifor: Why Radical Monetary Policy Failed in the UK
The failure to use fiscal policy in tandem with monetary policy means that the timid and short-sighted private sector has lacked confidence to ratchet up investment in productive, income-generating activity – as opposed to speculative activity.
Read more...Lost in Assumptions: Assessing the Economic Impact of Migrants
Yves here. This post is more important than it seems for several reasons. First, it reveals one of the dirty secrets of modeling: if you tweak assumptions within plausible ranges, you can come up with wildly different outcomes. Second, it identifies what some of these assumptions are in the now-hot-topic of whether letting more migrants […]
Read more...Links 1/20/16
Gauis Publius: The Clinton Campaign Speaks to the New York Times
The Clinton campaign is too obviously interested in its success over that of the nation. And despite the Sanders surge, it still believes in its inevitability.
Read more...Investment Manager GMO Debunks Mythology of “Sound Finance,” or Deficit Hawkery
Yves here. Sometimes it is best to let things speak for themselves. In that spirit, I am embedding a very important paper by the well-respected investment management firm GMO which debunks the tenets of “sound finance,” meaning the claim that governments need to balance their budgets. I expect to be referring to it regularly, particularly […]
Read more...John Helmer: The Clinton-Blair Dossier on Yeltsin and Putin
Newly-released material from Clinton archives show him and Blair working to control Yeltsin, with some success, and their plans for Putin.
Read more...Links 1/19/16
Not Going to Take it Anymore – Doctors in the Pacific Northwest Unionize
Unionizing doctors are at odds with management because management cares only about profit while they prioritize the quality of care.
Read more...New Paper Makes Powerful Case Against Tax Treaties
Why tax treaties are a gimmie to multinationals and a poisoned chalice for developing countries.
Read more...Why Letting the Koch Brothers Create a “Center for Free Enterprise” at Public University WCU is a Bad Idea
The hidden strings in a Koch Brothers gift to Western Carolina University, and why its faculty is opposed.
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