Author Archives: Yves Smith

Limits to Growth: Inconvenient Truth of Our Times

Before the first UN environmental summit, The Limits to Growth showed Earth’s finite resources cannot support ever-growing human consumption.

Links 11/8/2022

Real Progressives Live with Michael Hudson: The Destiny of Civilization

Michael Hudson explains how financial capitalism won the struggle with industrial capitalism and gave rentiers the upper hand.

The Public Shouldn’t Pay for Drugs Twice

Taxpayers foot the bill for medical research, but drug companies profit. We need a new R&D model to stop this rentierism.

Collateral Damage From Higher Interest Rates

Why to be wary of Larry Summers selling another Volcker-type “kill the economy to save it” interest rate jihad.

Links 11/5/2022

A Brief History of the Mortgage, From Its Roots in Ancient Rome to the English ‘Dead Pledge’ and its Rebirth in America

The backstory of what is now arguably the most widely-used form of lending in principal terms, the mortgage.

Russian Oil Price Cap Will Not Apply To Resold Cargoes

The “collective West” is remarkably attached to sanctions that have hurt them more than Russia. The oil price cap is next in this pattern.

Could the Ukraine Conflict Be an Opportunity for the Global South?

Many countries see the Russia challenge to Western economic dominance as an opportunity to rewrite the rules of global trade in their favor.

The Destiny of Civilization: An Interview with Michael Hudson on Economic Development, Rentierism, Debt, China

Another tour de force with Michael Hudson, covering development, rentierism, economic narratives, debt dynamics, and the rise of China.

The Best Climate News You May Not Have Heard About

The Montreal Protocol — designed to save the ozone layer — is also averting other global warming/climate damage.

Thieves’ Paradise in Kiev — IMF Admits It Doesn’t Know How Much Ukraine Has Received of $35 Billion in Promised Foreign Cash, or Where the Money Was Spent

It isn’t surprising that IMF funds to Ukraine are lost in action. What is surprising is the IMF isn’t pretending to care.

Has Russia Already Pwnd Ukraine?

What if Russia is the only country that can get Ukraine back on its feet in any reasonable time frame?