Author Archives: Yves Smith
Why Politicians Won’t Fix Affordability
Why affordability crisis is a symptom of predatory neoliberal practices. Concentrated wealth looks set to keep this new norm in place.
Read more...Two Decades of Chinese Industrial Subsidies
A profile of China’s subsidies and how they have changed over time. Counter-intuitively, agriculture is the most important recipient.
Read more...With Global Attention on Venezuela, Israel Intensifies Assault on Gaza, Lebanon
Israel continues to kill children because it can.
Read more...Links 1/6/2026
Trump’s Greenland Threats: Will He or Won’t He Act?
Why Trump’s saber-rattling over Greenland should be taken seriously.
Read more...Fed’s Standing Repo Facility (SRF) Drops to Zero, from $75 Billion on the Last Balance Sheet as Yearend Liquidity Turmoil Dissolves
Unpacking the much-ado-about-nothing over year-end use of the Fed’s pet liquidity-providing mechanism, its standing repo facility.
Read more...EU’s Carbon Border Tax Goes Live, Eliciting Threats from China and Perhaps Soon, the US
China and India are unhappy about a new EU carbon tax on exports like steel. The US is expected to join the chorus. Will they retaliate?
Read more...Even the Wall Street Journal Doubts the Trump Seize-Venezuela-Oil Scheme
Despite Trump’s loud proclamations, his fevered Venezuela oil heist dreams are set to go nowhere. So what happens then?
Read more...Links 1/3/2026
SMRs Explained: Real-World Economics, Fuel Bottlenecks, and the Race to Scale
A primer on SMRs, as in small nuclear reactors, the new bright idea for how to satisfy insatiable AI energy demand.
Read more...Screens and Social Media Are Damaging Kids’ Conversation Skills. Here’s Why This Matters, and How to Get Them Back
Quelle surprise! Smartphone fixation is producing conversation-deficient children.
Read more...The CIA Is Manipulating Trump Against Putin
Quelle surprise! The CIA is yet again up to no good.
Read more...How China’s Overinvestment Helped Produce Africa’s Deindustrialization
An in-depth article from a leftist vantage on China’s extensive involvement in Africa finds that it has been a net negative for development
Read more...There Are No Free Markets
Neoliberal free market ideology was always a fantasy. But what comes next given the late stage capitalism breakdown?
Read more...