Author Archives: Yves Smith

Pointless Pain Is What We’re Enduring. And All for the Sake of Accepting That Money is Not a Constraint on Our Potential, and Never Will Be

Defitic hysteria, UK style, and why misunderstanding what government money is about persists.

The Jobs Recovery, Compared to the “Good Times” Trend

February confirms: V-shaped jobs recovery petered out in October about two-thirds into it.

Economists’ Rx: “Sick? Stay Home!”

Economists endorse sick day mandates. Pass the word.

Covid Deranges the Immune System in Complex and Deadly Ways

The more experts look at Covid, the more they seem to come up with new questions rather than answers.

Covid Baby Bust Has Governments Rattled

A falloff in baby production has capitalists very worried.

The U.S. Grid Isn’t Ready For A Major Shift To Renewables

The Texas power outages exposed serious shortcomings with the structure and operation of the US electrical grid.

GOP Voting Rights Act Position Falls Apart in SCOTUS Arguments

The GOP scored an own goal in its Supreme Court arguments on a closely-watched Arizona voting rights case.

Bad Stimulus: Government Payments to Individuals Are a Terrible Way to Solve America’s Structural Economic Problems

Why the Biden stimulus program is fundamentally wrongheaded.

Facebook and Google vs the Free Press

The effort to contain Google and Facebook were only in the skirmish stage until Australia and Maryland upped the ante with their tax powers.

RIP Gold. Killed by Bitcoin

Inflationistas have abandoned gold and moved on to a new fetish.

How the NATO Alliance Is Fighting Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine With Subsidies From State Budgets and the Gates Foundation, Hidden by bhe Financial Times

The Financial Times runs dodgy numbers to claim that Russia is vaccine price gouging to poor countries, when that’s Big Pharma’s gig.

Links 3/3/2021

The Bullshit Economy: Homebuying “Help”

Introducing “The Bullshit Economy” from Jared Hoist, on products and companies that exist solely to exploit policy failures, in a bad way.

Department of Pre-Crime: Left-Wing Protester Arrested by FBI for Being on a “Path to Radicalization”

In the real world, the one we’re in now, the Department of Pre-Crime will not be this much fun. Nor will the good guys win.

A Big Fiscal Push is Urgent, The Risk of Overheating Is Small

The $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus should be large because the need is large.