Author Archives: Yves Smith

Someone Should Ask Biden Cabinet Candidate Ursula Burns If She Supports Child Labor in Africa

Ursula Burns, a candidate for Commerce Secretary, is a director of Nestlé, which defended its use of child labor before the Supreme Court.

Holiday-Year End Schedule and Comments Holiday

We are cutting back on posting and comments so as to give Team NC a bit of a respite. Hope you can also take a year end break.

Who Loses Out From Covid-Induced Changes in Buying Patterns?

Why for some sectors of the economy, life after Covid may never be the same.

UK’s Covid and Brexit Siege

Fog on the Covid and Brexit fronts.

A Tale of Two Elections: U.S. and Bolivia

US sanctimoniousness about the importance of elections respecting popular will does not apply outside our borders.

Brexit Event Horizon and Covid Mutation Deliver Lumps of Coal to UK for Christmas

“It’s always darkest before things go completely black.” That looks like a fit for Brexit.

Antitrust Spring

Regulators and officials are dusting off antitrust rule books to go after tech monopolists.

How President Biden Can Fix our Trade Problem

Trump’s approach to trade largely failed because the problem can’t be solved by tariffs. Here’s the answer.

SCOTUS: States Can Bar Pharmacy Benefit Manager Grifting

A new Supreme Court ruling upholds the ability of states to regulate pharmacy benefit managers.

We Are Fourteen Years Old

Fourteen years old and (hopefully) still making lots of trouble!

Why We Need to Adopt Friedrich Engels’ Thinking on Science in These Times

Friedrich Engels work on working class included describing how capitalists would not contrain their environmental damage.

Covid, the Politicization of Science, and More Questions About the Pfizer Vaccine Approval

How political considerations are getting in the way of science-based policy, as in not unduly tainted by commerce, special interests, or fashion.

Brexit: End of the Line

Even with the EU giving as much Brexit time as it can, December 31 is coming.