Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

A wee unpacking of unemployment data to show how Fed rate cut cheerleaders are still ahead of themselves

Yet another own goal in the US economic war against China. We chose to make ourselves dependent and don’t like where we are.

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, syndemics, the Bragg trial winds down. imperceptible skin sensors, Hokusai’s Great Wave ~

Even the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has admitted that Plan Colombia was a resounding failure from a counter-narcotics perspective while providing short-term benefits from a counter-insurgency perspective

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

“Modern” elements of enterprise were present in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and the institutions supported long-term growth

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, Pandemics; can the Democrats allow Trump to take office, White House issues corrections, Marijuana policy (“and boogie they will”) ~

Finally, a rigorous study on mask use shows definitively that masks do indeed work, as in reduce transmission of respiratory diseases.

How economic, military and political costs and consequences are intersecting in the Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts

Workers at companies like Apple and Starbucks face armies of union-busting lawyers advising employers to repeatedly violate labor laws.

The timetable for the collapse of the Thwaites Glacier is collapsing, and why that matters.

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, syndemics, Stefanik files ethics complaint against Merchan, Greenhalgh publishes ginormous, magisterial study, stomps anti-maskers and droplet dogmatists, “trust your immune system.” ~

The Rafah operation is speeding the pace of genocide in Gaza. That looks to be its primary aim.