Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

Medicare for All (the Perplexed)

A French lesson on Medicare for All.

India Bans Plastics Waste Imports, While Fossil Fuel Plastics Pushers in US and China Ramp Up to Party On

Kudos to India for banning plastics waste imports, to focus on solving its own waste management problem. Meanwhile, fossil fuel interests ramp up plans to produce more plastics.

Cities And Counties Unlikely To Heed FDA Warning On Importing Foreign Drugs

The FDA goes to bat for the right of drugs makers to price gouge Americans.

Do Real Estate Markets Make Our Cities Less Livable?

Author Samuel Stein talks about how capitalism shapes cities.

Have We Already Passed World Peak Oil and World Peak Coal?

Gail Tverberg extends her peak oil analysis to coal and finds a similar pattern.

Deregulating Banks Fueled Speculation, Not Productive Investment

More proof that letting banks have their way is not such a good idea…at least for non-financiers.

Developing Industry Standards Won’t Give AI a Conscience

Marc Böhlen is part of the team developing universal benchmarks for ethical artificial intelligence (AI). He tells us why they won’t work.

Why Carbon Prices Are Not Enough

A discussion of carbon taxes, cap and trade, and why neither is adequate by itself to change behavior.

Skilling Released from Prison After A Decade of Doing Time: A Reminder of a Not So Distant Past, When the Rule of Law Applied to Corporate CEOs

Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron, was released Friday after doing twelve years of prison time: a reminder that corporate officers once were once prosecuted and sent to jail for corporate criminal activities.

Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet

New report by Center for International Environmental Law warns: “Plastic is a Global Health Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight.”

Bills Criminalizing Pipeline Protest Arise in Statehouses Nationwide

Comprehensive overview of eight state-level initiatives promoted by oil and gas industry lobbyists to criminalize pipeline protests.

Taxcast: The #LuxLeaks Tax Deals – Still No investigation? Plus Amazon’s $0 Federal Tax Payment

This month’s Taxcast focuses on why the LuxLeaks deals are getting a free pass, the financialization of aid, and Amazon’s tax machinations.

Why a Focus on “Fake News” and Facebook Misses the Internet’s Real Problems – and Solutions

MP’s new ‘fake news’ report largely ignores other platforms like Google and YouTube, and surveillance capitalism itself – and risks sending regulation in the wrong direction.

Don’t “Buyback” Fair Labor Standards

Why the Schumer/Sanders bill on stock buybacks isn’t a very good instrument for improving labor rights and work standards.