Author Archives: Yves Smith

War as the Enemy of Reform: Biden’s Dilemma or His Excuse?

How much is keeping the US on a war footing really constraining Biden on the domestic front?

Links 5/18/2021

How the United States Helps To Kill Palestinians

Facts and figures on how blind US support of Israel puts Palestinians’ blood on our hands.

Put People Before Profits for Covid Progress

More discussion of Covid vaccine, testing and treatment apartheid, thanks to private sector profiteering.

Biden Administration/CDC “Mission Accomplished” Mask Reversal: Hubris? Incompetence? Toadying to Business?

Why the policy-making part of the CDC should be burned to the ground: it’s highly politicized yet not very good at politics.

No Matter How Powerful Israel’s Military Becomes, It Still Can’t Win

Israel’s conflict with Palestine is a constant threat that even the most advanced weaponry can’t tamp down.

Costco Is Mean to the Disabled and Elderly

Costco is not nice.

Links 5/15/2021

Bill Black: The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One (Part 1/9)

Bill Black traces the history of modern American financial fraud starting in this episode with the S&L Banking scandal.

Revealed: Big Pharma’s Plot to Derail US Covid-19 Vaccine Waiver

Confidential documents expose the pharmaceutical lobby’s attempts to recruit lawmakers for anti-TRIPS vaccine waiver effort.

Musical Interlude (“On the Path of Decent Groove”): Belshazzar’s Feast

Another musical offering, this one the over-the-top turbo-charged cantata, Belshazzar’s Feast, by Sir William Walton.

Book Review: A Ground-Level Look at America’s Health Care System

In “The Hospital,” Brian Alexander chronicles the struggle to provide adequate health care in small-town America during Covid.

Links 5/14/2021

CalPERS Long-Term Care Program Bleeds Policyholders Dry via 10X Higher Premiums, Gross Mismanagement, Bad Faith Dealing

CalPERS continued to abuse its long-term care policy holders, via contract-defying rate increases vastly higher than other insurers.