Author Archives: Yves Smith

Links 3/19/2020

A View From The Front Lines Of California’s COVID-19 Battle

California braces for the COVID-19 storm.

The Coming Fiscal Crisis Of State And Local Governments

State and local governments will soon be in a world of hurt.

IMF Refuses Aid to Venezuela in the Midst of the Coronavirus Crisis

The IMF dons its enforcement brass knuckles.

Why Sending $1,000 Checks to Everyone Won’t Solve the Coronavirus Crisis (Updated)

Why the Republicans’ planned coronavirus bazooka isn’t big enough.

Debt and Financial Crises: Will History Repeat Itself?

Unhappy families may all be different, but financial crises are pretty much the same, rooted in debt overhangs, and one has been brewing.

Closing Polling Places Is the 21st Century’s Version of a Poll Tax

Voter disenfranchisement via shuttering polling sites.

Links 3/17/2020

Coronavirus Means Zero Hour for the European Union

Germany’s long-standing practice of muscling the European Union to serve its own ends now risks dissolution and a banking system crisis.

Brexit: The ‘Australian Option’?

Boris Johnson fancies that the UK’s future lies with the US. Good luck with that.

Social Insurance in a Time of Pandemic: A Proposal for the Government to Act as Buyer of Last Resort

It’s not hard operationally for the government to counter economic fallout from the pandemic. The hard part is ideological baggage.

The Fed Backfires: Shock and Awe Rate Drop to 0%, Emergency Bond Buying Program Leads to Limit Down Drops in US Equity Futures as Real World Coronavirus Damage Worsens

The Fed just told everyone to assume the brace position.