Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

As polling methods evolve, it can be hard to distinguish solid survey findings from those that dissolve under scrutiny.

Michael Hudson explains how the IMF’s view of war debt is dangerously misguided and older economic thinkers had much better take.

Today’s Water Cooler: Biden v. Trump and the Democrat succession crisis

Yves here. The presidential debate last night is likely to go down as being of historical importance, in the same league as the Kennedy-Nixon debate. But here, instead of demonstrating how the then-young medium rewarded good looks and a confident affect, here it showed two men, which as often happens with the aged, having become […]

This was probably the shortest lived coup in Bolivia’s history. But who was behind it?

Fiscal pressures are set to intensify battles among shifting European leadership groups as to how much to spend and on what.

Finally, a look at how Covid-related early retirement has contributed to our recent inflation.

Volatility is the central feature of this election, despite all efforts to keep things stable. It follows that the debate will be volatile.

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, Pandemics; The Debates, pre-game analysis; Murthy v. Missouri; Digital ID exposure debacle; CDK auto dealer outage and consumer spending ~

Satayjit Das’ penetrating and witty look at The Economist reveals a great deal not to like.

A new study finds that revenue-funded healthcare is cost-effective, efficient, and fair, while all health insurance has avoidable excess cost

A very bad day for what passed for free speech in the US.