Author Archives: Yves Smith

Medicare for All, Not Medicare Advantage

How Medicare Advantage plans raid taxpayer funds and routinely fail to deliver the care that patients expect and deserve.

Jonesing on Carbon

A reminder that the rich are grossly dispropirtionate carbon fuel users.

China And U.S. Lock Horns Over New 122.5% Steel Tariff

Yet another US/China trade row, this one over steel.

The Scourge of Corporate Financialization: Income Inequity, Employment Instability, Productive Fragility

Stock buybacks, aka corporate financialization, as a mode of predatory value extraction

China Schizophrenia: Jake Sullivan Makes Demands, Press Fulminates Its Ambitions as While Overhyping Current Economic Wobbles

The West’s discomfort over China’s influence and economic stature is sometimes a bit too obvious.

Ann Pettifor Explains Why Neoclassical Economists Are the Last People To Listen to on Climate Change

A well-warranted takedown of the irresponsible and destructive record of mainstream economists on climate change.

As Offshore Wind Ramps Up, Scientists Flag Potential Impacts

Offshore wind farms can create their own local climates and may alter currents. How does that affect marine ecosystems?

Links 8/22/2023

Fed Ponders How Quickly to Try to Inflict More Pain on the Economy to Get Inflation to 2%

Debates inside and outside the Fed as to what it should do next about inflation pick up as its annual Jackson Hole conference approaches.

China And Russia Execute A Pincer Movement Around Iraq’s Biggest Oil Assets

China and Russia oil plays in and around Iraq provide further evidence that the US has lost its touch in the hegemony game.

A Russian Paper on New Currency/International Reserve Options Finds No Magic Bullets

A recent paper in a Russian economics journal confirms that there is no simple way out of the dollar hegemony box.

Stigler Center/ProMarket Hypocrisy: Published, Then Removed Post That Justified Anti-Trust; Bogus Excuses Demonstrate University of Chicago Failed Econowashing of Hard Core Neoclassical Stance

ProMarket and the Consumer Welfare Standard: Output increase is not sufficient to increase welfare. Allocation, aka distribution, matters.

Links 8/19/2023

A Peek at Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs

The Biden Adminstration has implemented some modest curbs on drug prices. Big Pharma is fighting a rearguard action in court.