Author Archives: Yves Smith

Pessimism, Cynicism & Realism, or the Edge of the Volcano

Accusations of pessimism (and why is pessimism bad anyhow?) is a cheap shot at well-founded criticism of Team Dem.

IPCC Climate Report: Profound Changes Are Underway in Earth’s Oceans and Ice – A Lead Author Explains What the Warnings Mean

The latest IPCC report gives a Defcon 1 climate emergency alarm. But are any of the right people paying attention?

Hubert Horan: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Twenty-Seven: Despite Staggering Losses, the Uber Propaganda Train Keeps Rolling

How Uber keeps pumping hot air into a financially flaccid business.

The Best Policies to Fight Pandemics: Five Lessons from the Literature So Far

Mining various studies on pandemic interventions to see which look most effective.

Globalization, Specialization, and the Division of Labour

A new angle on why workers lose out as globalization increases.

Hubert Horan: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Twenty-Six: With No Hope of Real Profits, Uber and Lyft Double Down on Fake Profit Metrics

Uber continues to hemorrhage cash and rack up impressive negative operating margins, yet the press eats up its accounting misdirection.

Eric Topol Discusses Covid Vaccines Not Meeting Expectations, Breakthrough Cases Sicker

The data on US Covid cases and deaths are bad enough that members of the science establishment like Eric Topol are questioning the vaccines

Links 8/7/2021

Hoisted from E-Mail: Covid Death Undercounts, but How Large?

Yet another Covid data failure.

The Disturbing Rise of the Corporate Mercenaries

Now that Congress is showing interest in taking back its control of war powers, it could look at stealh warmaking via mercenaries too.

The Tokyo Games Prove That the Olympics Are Less Relevant Than Ever

The Olympics keep getting smaller as they move further from their original ideal and become ever more commercial.

When is a Majority a Minority? When It’s the GOP

The GOP is masterfully manipulating America’s antiquated 18th century political system to maintain its minority rule.

‘Unimaginably Catastrophic’: Researchers Fear Gulf Stream System Could Collapse

The Gulf Stream is already slowing, and its breakdown would be an umitigated climate disaster. Yet as always, complacency reigns.

Apple Rolling Out iPhone, iPad, iCloud Spyware, with Kiddie Porn as the Excuse

Apple abandons its pretense of caring about user privacy and has now joined arms with the police. Be warned.

Biotechnology Greed Is Prolonging the Pandemic. It’s Inexcusable.

Government is failing when it stands pat in the face of “your money or your life” level corporate greed, now on display in this pandemic.