Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

National Grid Wants to Heat More Homes With Converted Food Waste — and Make You Pay For It

National Grid’s biogas plant is performing poorly, as shown by downtimes and methane flaring, yet it wants more consumer subsidies to expand.

US Affordable Housing Policy Works for Wall Street and Rich Developers, Not Renters

Current policy doesn’t provide affordable housing very well but does a good job of lining the pockets of real estate interests.

Defending Privacy in the Surveillance State and Fragmenting Internet

Governments and private entities are eroding privacy on the internet. Is it possible to safeguard both openness and security in cyberspace?

New Palestine Protest/Free Speech Threat: House Oversight Committee Targets 20 Pro-Palestinian Organizations, Such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Demanding Treasury Produce Suspicious Activity Reports, Including on Employeees

A new salvo against designated enemies, aka Palestinian rights advocates, which fortunately is more bark than bite.

In the Race for Space Metals, Companies Hope to Cash In

Mining asteroids could, in theory, reduce the burden on Earth’s resources. What could go wrong?

Michael Hudson: Parallels Between Archaic Entrepots and Modern Offshore Banking Centers

There is perilous little that is novel in modern finance. Our offshore, as in tax havens, have analogues in the ancient world.

UK Banks Will Go Bust Because of Climate Change

The UK has low-lying terrain that has nevertheless been developed and will go underwater with climate change and take a lot of banks with it.

Are the BRICS and Their New Development Bank Offering Alternatives to the World Bank, the IMF?

An assessment of how far BRICS has gotten in creating new monetary arrangements and institutions. The short version is “not very”.

After Much Posturing, US Imposes (So Far) Underwhelming Sanctions Against China for Russia Trade

After sending Yellen and Blinken to China to make threats, the Administration has imposed some strikingly weak sanctions

TaxCast #142: Blockchain Havens

How blockchain/crypto tax havens are displacing traditional tax havens.

AC, Power Banks, Mini Fridges: Oregon Equips Medicaid Patients for Climate Change

Health insurers like Oregon’s Medicaid find it cost effective to give patients equipment to protect them from heat as well as wildfire smoke

With US Workers on the March, Southern States Take Aim at Unions

Governors in the region are “truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement,” said one critic.

How Banks and Investors Are Fueling a Global Biodiversity Crisis

Commercial financial flows to the forest-risk commodity sectors are driving the majority of tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Grocery Store Consolidation: Manipulating Supply Chains and Manufacturing, for Corporate Influence and Profit . . . Redux

More squeezing of the poors and shrinking middle class sought, via a US grocery store merger creating combined company market share of 22%